Justin Trudeau's journey to the prime minister's office
Future PM quickly climbed the political ladder, as many expected he would
It was news that many people had expected would come one day.
But it didn't become official until February 2007, when Justin Trudeau announced that he was stepping into the ring of electoral politics.
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Standing in the Montreal airport named after his father, prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the younger Trudeau, then 35 years old, said he would seek the Liberal nomination in the Quebec riding of Papineau.
"It will be a chance for me to demonstrate my own political abilities," he told reporters.
Two months later, Trudeau won the nomination, making him the party's candidate in Papineau for the election in 2008.
And within hours of winning a seat in Parliament in that same election, Trudeau was already fending off questions about his leadership ambitions.
"I just got hired to do a job," Trudeau told CBC the morning after the election.
Yet just a few years later, after winning re-election in Papineau in 2011, Trudeau would make a run at the federal Liberal leadership — and win it on the first ballot.
Trudeau then went on to lead the federal Liberals to victory at the polls in the 2015 election, with the party winning a majority government.
At age 43, Trudeau had become the second-youngest person to serve as prime minister.
Only Joe Clark — a political rival of Trudeau's father — had been younger when taking on the top job in Canadian politics at 39.
In August 2018, Trudeau confirmed his intention to run for re-election in 2019.
The October 2019 election saw the Liberals return to power, but as a minority government. Trudeau remained as leader and was re-elected in Papineau.
