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In the U.K., a bearded man is poised to take control of the Labour Party, becoming the first bearded leader of a major British party since the First World War. And, given current polls, Canada may soon be sending a bearded prime minister to the clean-shaven ranks of the Group of Seven.

After nearly a century-long hiatus, it seems beards are returning to the faces of Western politicians.

“If Mulcair wins, it would indeed be a remarkable moment in the history of facial hair,” said Christopher Oldstone-Moore, a facial hair historian at Ohio’s Wright State University, in an email to the National Post.

Beards were practically ubiquitous at the dawn of Canadian governance. Nineteen of the 25 delegates photographed at the Charlottetown Conference sported some kind of facial hair. Of the four male monarchs who have been Canada’s head of state, two were bearded.

South of the border, the post-Civil War United States spent 28 consecutive years with presidents sporting some kind of beard, moustache or muttonchop sidewhiskers.