OTTAWA—Justin Trudeau has won the Liberal leadership, but his far-reaching quest to overhaul modern Canadian politics is just beginning.

Known mainly as the son of a prime minister before the leader’s contest began, he used the campaign to establish himself as a national figure and carve out a style of his own. His upbeat, hopeful approach emerged as a breath of fresh air on a political scene awash in attack ads and recriminations.

And Canadians, according to the polls, responded accordingly. By the time the leadership speeches were over, the surging popularity of the 41-year-old MP from Quebec revived hopes of a comeback among disillusioned Liberals.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien declared Sunday that this leadership race marked the “renaissance” of the Liberal party

“Under a new Liberal leader, the best is yet to come . . . Today marks the beginning of the end of this Conservative government,” Chrétien said.

Chrétien thanked all the candidates for their efforts. “You have rejuvenated our party with young people, new members and new ideas,” he said.

Trudeau told cheering supporters Sunday he was confident Canadians would embrace “positive politics.”

“Canadians want to be led, not ruled. They are tired of the negative, divisive politics of Mr. Harper’s Conservatives,” he said.

But the next step for Trudeau is a major one: He needs to build on his personal appeal to transform the Liberal party into a riding-level machine capable of taking on the well-organized electoral operations of the New Democrats and Conservatives.

That means rebuilding party finances, expanding party support, attracting electable candidates and developing a winnable policy platform. And he only has about 18 months to do it all.

At the heart of Trudeau’s strategy is nothing less than an attempt to revolutionize Canada’s politics by vastly opening up the national dialogue to new people and new ideas.

Continuing the party’s efforts to broaden its appeal by allowing non-party members to take part in the leadership voting, Trudeau has vowed to forgo the leader’s usual control over the nomination of election candidates in favour of open nominations in all 308 ridings.

Like U.S. President Barack Obama, Trudeau is making extensive use of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to throw open the political process and maximize his connections with Canadians, particularly young people. This gave his leadership effort enormous reach and contributed to a large influx of small donations as part of his eye-opening fundraising effort, which brought in more than $1.3 million.

Many Liberals are hoping Trudeau’s campaign success in outreach and fundraising can be brought to the party, said Greg MacEachern, vice-president of Environics Communications.

“The criticism has been made previously that . . . Liberals like to play the air war and not the ground war,” MacEachern said in an interview.

Trudeau has talked about focusing efforts on the ground level with initiatives to get out the vote in an election and keep Liberal backers engaged to volunteer and donate.

“I think he needs to continue the impressive work he has done in six months,” Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc told the Star.

“He has shown himself to be a prolific fundraiser for our party like you haven’t seen in a generation. I think he has to continue getting outside of Ottawa . . . to connect with people.”

But for all the optimism and enthusiasm that surrounded Trudeau’s victory Sunday, LeBlanc said the challenge facing Liberals should not be underestimated.

“(Monday) we go back to being the third party in the House of Commons” and that’s a “sobering reminder,” LeBlanc said.

Liberal MP and former leader Stéphane Dion urged the party to act fast to define Trudeau in the public eye — before Conservative attack ads hit the airwaves.

“We have to be sure to introduce our leader before the Conservatives do,” Dion said. “They are poor to govern but really good to campaign with attack ads and negativity. They are the champions at that.”

Another challenge will be giving Canadians a more precise idea of what the Liberals under the inexperienced Trudeau would do if elected to govern. During the leadership, he avoided laying out a set of detailed fixes for Canada’s problems, saying he first wants to engage Canadians.

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But he has set out the outlines of his policy thinking. The Liberals must come to the aid of the average Canadians who are finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet, he says. Trudeau has said his top economic priority will be middle-class prosperity, targeting a voter-rich demographic.

He has said his economic agenda will focus on skills, investment and expanding trade opportunities.

He has also stressed environmental sustainability and the need to refurbish a foreign policy that Trudeau says has become divisive internationally under Harper.

MacEachern warned that polls showing that Trudeau could return the Liberals to power are a double-edged sword.

“The Liberals can’t get too excited because there is a long time between now and the next election,” he said.

“But it does send a signal that Canadians are willing to give the Liberals some thought in terms of their choice on election day,” MacEachern said. “The challenge for the Trudeau team will be to temper those expectations.”

“But it does send a signal that Canadians are willing to give the Liberals some thought in terms of their choice on election day,” MacEachern said. “The challenge for the Trudeau team will be to temper those expectations.”

The voting

There were 30,800 points up for grabs in the Liberal leadership vote: 100 points for each of Canada’s 308 electoral districts. A candidate would have needed 15,401 points to win on the first ballot.

Justin Trudeau: 24,668

Joyce Murray: 3,130

Martha Hall Findlay: 1,760

Martin Cauchon: 815

Deborah Coyne: 214

Karen McCrimmon: 210

Total votes cast: 104,552

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