It’s Still Too Early to Complain About Trudeau’s Photo Ops Because Oh My God, Those Biceps

A few years ago, French magazine Maquillage et Motocyclette, ranked Canadians as being among the ugliest people on earth.

Editor-in-chief Chantelle DuBois told the CBC at the time that our "very scrunched" faces and tendency to wear sweatpants all the time (sweatpants>sex imo) make us repugnant. She then added that Canadians are overly apologetic and insecure.

"Canada is like the boyfriend who keeps calling you every day, every day, every day… It makes you feel yucky."

Things are different these days. Though we are still embarrassingly desperate for approval, we now have the hottest politician in the world leading our country and everyone wants a piece of his tattooed, panda-loving bod.

This week alone, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was named one of GQ Magazine's "Most Stylish Men Alive," easily clearing the outlet's crazy high threshold on account of his khaki wedding suit and a pair of Habs socks he publicly displayed on his feet. He also made Time's list of 100 most influential people, with SNL creator (and fellow Canadian) Lorne Michaels declaring him "bold, clear as a bell and progressive." Nobody likes a murky world leader/bell, after all. While in New York City to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, Trudeau made time for a boxing session at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, which media outlets happily devoured. UK paper the Independent even used Trudeau as the lead image in a story about the sexiest accents on the planet—even though Canadians did not make the list and aren't referenced a single time in the story.

The cynic in me is a little nauseated by the whole saga. For once in my life, I even found myself nodding along in agreement to a Toronto Sun editorial that accused Trudeau of manipulating the media with his sexy boxing drills and journalists of happily obliging him, without being proper critics.

But then I took a step back and realized it might be a little early for us to be supercritical of Trudeau. He could be saying more about Canadians who are being prosecuted for weed "crimes" that might soon be legal. And some experts feel his federal budget could've done a lot more for young people—whose backs he's supposed to have, as minister of youth. Plus, he was apparently having a fancy dinner and attending a book launch when the House of Commons held an emergency debate over the Attawapiskat suicide crisis. But on the whole, it's only been six months since he came into office, so there's not a whole lot of substantial material to rip into.

Looking back to exactly a year ago today, Harper was making headlines for wearing a Team Canada jersey at a Winnipeg Jets game, virtually the only thing that made him distinguishable from the rest of the crowd. Harper, vaguely parting his lips in what we can only assume was his attempt at a smile and staring upward (presumably at a scoreboard), was the Gleason's boxing match of last year. Other things that passed for "colour stories" during Harper's day included his piano rendition of Sweet Child O' Mine and that time he went on a "joy ride" ATVing in Whitehorse and pissed off a bunch of locals who say the vehicles are destroying the wilderness.

It got me thinking that maybe being starved of a leader who emitted human emotions—or talked to the media at all—for such a long time is partially why the Trudeau honeymoon isn't yet over. That and the man is just objectively hot.

Hopefully though, we'll get it out of our systems now so when it's time for him to start making good (or renege) on his many election promises, we won't be blinded by a shirtless photo op.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.