Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 7, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I TOP NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2025 JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Trudeau plays Simon Says with students at Robert H. Smith School in Winnipeg in 2017. JOE BRYKSA / FREE PRESS FILES Trudeau boxes at Pan Am Boxing Club in Winnipeg in 2013 while a federal Liberal leadership candidate. JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Indigenous youths pass sacred fire torches to Trudeau at a 2017 Canada Summer Games ceremony in Winnipeg. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Trudeau speaks at a national commemorative ceremony in November honouring the legacy of Murray Sinclair, at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Pipeline protesters interrupt Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he speaks at a town hall gathering in the Duckworth Centre at the University of Winnipeg in January 2017. JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Canada Goose employee Seolhee Lee greets Trudeau during a tour of a manufacturing facility in 2018. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Southern Chiefs’ Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels gives a beaded medallion to Trudeau in 2022. JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Trudeau and then-Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister say their goodbyes after meeting in Winnipeg in 2017. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Trudeau speaks to a large crowd in 2019 at Old Market Square in Winnipeg about photos that were unearthed of him in brownface from 2001. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Trudeau gives a thumbs up to MP Terry Duguid (left) while chatting with engineering students at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus in 2023. Trudeau’s political journey in Manitoba M ANITOBA was a frequent destination for Justin Trudeau as part of his 12- year journey as federal Liberal leader. It was a province that delivered seven seats for him en route to his breakthrough 2015 election, which made him prime minister with a healthy majority. It was where he was frequently treated as a rock star during a prolonged honeymoon with voters. It was where he was forced to respond to stumbles that damaged his brand, such as the controversy over yearbook images of him in brownface during the 2019 campaign. It was where he performed a wide range of ceremonial duties, such as the opening of the 2017 Canada Summer Games and speaking at the funeral of Murray Sinclair in 2024. Those campaign stops, town halls and photo-ops are all part of the record that had him go from the top of the political charts to a drag on party fortunes and the electoral chances of the four remaining Grit ridings in Manitoba. ;