Justin Trudeau and "The West Wing"

From The Hill: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he watched the hit TV show "The West Wing" to prep for debates against the incumbent Stephen Harper in 2015. As it turns out, he's a fan of the long-running series (which aired on NBC 1999-2006). The show is now available on Netflix.

Prime Minister Trudeau revealed this very interesting info recently to the podcast "The West Wing Weekly"--listen here to episode 3.15, Dead Irish Writers (with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau).  He does point out that real life being a head of government isn't as easy as it looks on TV. Maybe "I'm not a real Prime Minister but I played one on television" has something to recommend it.  More here from Maclean's. 

Pop culture has dominated the political news cycle over the past year or so. Stay tuned.

Justin Trudeau, Marvel Comics Superhero

Marvel Comics is introducing a new superhero: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He's the second member of his family to make an appearance in Marvel's pages: his father, Pierre Eliott Trudeau, featured in a comic in 1979. What's Mr. Trudeau's superpower in the comic, you ask? Well, apart from the "cool factor" (which isn't bad--not a lot of politicians have that), I'm not quite sure yet, but it just might be ensuring human rights. That's an excellent superpower.

The storyline appears to include Mr. Trudeau debating the ethics of using predictive policing with the Canadian superheroes Alpha Flight. Captain Marvel is for using that power to lock up those who would do evil in the future, and Iron Man is against it. Just FYI, I'm with Iron Man. I think we'll have to read the comic to find out, though. It will be on sale soon, and Marvel is taking pre-orders now.  More here from the CBC,  here from NPR