Let's just apply the American template to any Canadian election

[bcholmes]

"[Stephane Dion] is certainly the Liberal leader who's taken his party furthest to the left, at least since [former prime minister] Pierre Trudeau," Mr. Harper said in Inuvik.

"I think this is not a time to go back to Trudeau-style economic policies," said the Conservative Leader, who invoked Mr. Trudeau's name three times in unfavourable comparisons with Mr. Dion.

— The Globe and Mail

Huh. While Trudeau was pretty unpopular the day he stopped being Liberal leader, he's got tons of respect, today, at least outside of the prairies. I mean, wasn't he the second-place winner in that Greatest Canadian thing a few years ago. He's respected much more than, say, the conservative Mulroney.