Trudeau’s election redefined politics of manliness, study suggests

May 30, 2016

According to a new study co-authored by recent U of T Political Science graduate Jerald Sabin, the often portrayed image of Trudeau as subordinate in a field of aggressive alpha males may have helped cast him as an agent of change in the 2015 election race, which had a strong focus on on the manliness of federal party leaders.

Sabin, a research associate with the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, said, “I think the Canadian electorate got somewhat fatigued with the aggressive, angry, tough approach and took a different direction,” Sabin told Robyn Bresnahan on CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning. “If anything, Justin Trudeau’s historic victory in the last election is going to open up new space for us to talk about what kind of leader we’re looking for for a political party.”

Sabin and co-author Kyle Kirkup reviewed 756 editorials and op-eds in Canada’s top 10 English-language newspapers as well as interviewing journalists who covered the 2015 campaign. They looked for key words reflecting traditional masculinity, such as strength, stoicism and decisiveness. They also tracked emasculating words such as boyish, florid and emotional. The full article is available here.