Justin Trudeau's 'Just watch me' note to Halifax man sold on eBay

Someone now has a bit of Trudeau history — for a cool $12,301.

A note by prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau was put up for sale on the online auction site eBay earlier this week.

In 2013, Trudeau, then running for the Liberal Party leadership, answered a note passed to him from a Conservative Party supporter while on a plane from Halifax to Ottawa.

The note read, "Justin, can you really beat Harper?"

"I was kind of testing Justin to see what kind of person he was and I think that's what Canadians voted for," said Michael Kydd, who once worked for the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. 

Kydd was grading papers on that late-night flight when he saw Trudeau sitting three rows ahead. Kydd jotted down his question and handed it to the flight attendant. 

"She looked at me strangely, as anyone would expect. She walked up, handed it to him," Kydd told CBC Mainstreet.

"About 20 minutes later the note came back and it said, 'Mike, Just watch me,'" Kydd said.

Trudeau was referencing his father Pierre Trudeau's famous words during the October Crisis.

eBay money would 'help with the kids'

Following Monday's historic election, which coloured the entire Atlantic region Liberal red, Kydd posted the note on eBay with a starting bid price of $2,500. As of Wednesday at noon, no bids had been placed.

But by the time bidding closed on Thursday afternoon, there were 62 bids and the note had sold for $12,301.

Although Kydd didn't expect the paper to sell, he thought it was worth a try.

"I've had a bit of a rough year so I think I could certainly use some of that to help with the kids and everything else," Kydd said. "Part of me still wants to keep that note."

Kydd left his teaching position at Halifax's Mount Saint Vincent University last year when a relationship with an adult student became public. 

"I expect my career to be ruined," he told CBC News at the time. Kydd now runs a crisis management firm.

'He certainly lived up to those words'

Kydd and Trudeau later met again while walking through the Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa, he says. Trudeau approached him and asked why he looked familiar. Kydd reminded him of 'Just watch me' on the plane. 

"I think [Trudeau] jumped about four feet high and he put his finger on my chest and he said, 'You have no idea how much trouble you got me into with the Liberal Party of Canada over that,'" Kydd said.

"I said, 'You have no idea how much trouble I got into with the Conservative Party and with the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia over that one.'"

Trudeau tweeted to confirm the authenticity of the note at the time. 

"I had a good chuckle at it, a good laugh out of that, and he certainly lived up to those words," Kydd said.