Justin Trudeau has been Canada's prime minister since 2015. The son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin has become an international icon for feminists and progressives, whilst his polished and stage-managed governing style has generated scores of critics inside Canada. 

On the face of it, Trudeau might not appear as unpleasant as many of the other characters I have studied on this podcast, and that’s because, to a great extent, he’s not. He hasn’t started wars that have killed thousands of innocent civilians, or shut down liberty and democracy in his country. 

However, politics is a comparative discipline, and in Canada's relatively gentle political culture, Trudeau has been unusually controversial, and I wanted this conversation to be an attempt to uncover why. 

My guest for this conversation is Andrew Coyne (@acoyne), columnist at the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper.