Justin Trudeau, Politician and Star of His Own Viral Universe
By JONAH BROMWICH

Within the past two weeks, nearly a million and a half people have watched a YouTube video clip featuring an explanation of quantum computing. Such an esoteric subject may not generally attract intense interest, but when Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is involved, these things have a tendency to go viral.

Mr. Trudeau has become a digital star many times over since his election in October. Videos of the leader explaining his brand of feminism or hugging baby pandas have become a near-weekly staple of social media feeds.

The clip of Mr. Trudeau, 44, excitedly breaking down quantum computing during a visit to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, this month prompted admiring write-ups from both Canadian and American news media outlets.

The Toronto Star: “The man who has been called Canada’s new heartthrob, yoga hotshot, feminist PM — apparently eager to show he’s more than a now globally recognized pretty face — promptly showed he has computer-geek talents previously little known.”

The Washington Post: “The Internet’s love of Justin Trudeau knows no bounds. And it grows greater still.”

Writing in the Canadian newsmagazine Maclean’s last month, the political analyst Evan Solomon called the prime minister “our first ‘Viral PM,’ creating political ‘moments’ specifically so they become shareable.”

Mr. Solomon also compared Mr. Trudeau’s political skills to those of Donald J. Trump: “If Trump has taught the world anything, it is that celebrity is a political currency that is valued very highly. Trudeau’s image isn’t a two-bit coin; it’s political bullion.”

Experts say that politicians like Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Trump and President Obama have been ahead of the curve in harnessing social media’s paradigm-changing power. Their ability to shine in bite-size media is reminiscent of John F. Kennedy’s prowess compared with Richard M. Nixon’s in the first televised presidential debate in 1960. And tools including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have given these politicians a significant portion of control in disseminating their own messages.

Laura Olin, who ran social media strategy for the Obama campaign in 2012, said that politicians’ most viral moments have become so easy to identify that “at this point the digital media company machine has learned to do a lot of this work for social media campaigners.”

“It is another way of showing that politicians who are able to act like normal human beings are the ones who are going to attract mass followings,” she added.

Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal Party’s digital fluency during the election helped them attract the support of an unusually large group of young voters. A study commissioned by a students’ association and released last week by the Canadian public opinion firm Abacus Data found that voter turnout among 18- to 25-year-olds “likely increased by about 12 points in 2015,” and that 66 percent of young Canadians said they could relate to Mr. Trudeau.

Abacus’s chief executive, David Coletto, said that the Liberals understood social media and that Mr. Trudeau understood it “unlike any leader we’ve had in Canada.”

Mr. Trudeau’s political opposition has not taken kindly to his online success, criticizing the prime minister as superficial. His answer on quantum computing was used as fodder for a Conservative Facebook video, which claimed that he had staged the moment to avoid answering a question about fighting terrorism.

“Sorry, Mr. Trudeau. Serious questions need serious answers,” the ad said.

Some digital outlets have also been critical of the quantum computing video. Gawker suggested in a headline that it was most “likely staged.” The Washington Post quibbled that the explanation “was actually not quite right.”

A spokesman for the prime minister, Cameron Ahmad, rejected any suggestion that occasions like the one on quantum computing were staged purely for the purposes of publicity. He also pointed out that Mr. Trudeau had returned to answer the reporter’s question about terrorism at length after tackling quantum computing.

“The prime minister has a tendency to make genuine comments that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from most politicians, and I think that gives Canadians and people around the world the opportunity to see genuine reactions and statements from a political leader,” Mr. Ahmad said.

Ms. Olin, the social media strategist for the Obama campaign, said that social media tools might allow adept politicians in the future to paper over nuance or even obscure their beliefs, instead favoring moments that would most likely take off on social media. (She said she did not believe that Mr. Trudeau was such an example.)

“I think that’s definitely a danger,” she said. “I’m guessing that there will be someone who will come along who is both completely full of it and also good at hiding the fact that they’re completely full of it.”

知識無極限！ 加國帥總理連「量子計算」都能談

紐約時報報導，YouTube上一段加拿大總理杜魯多講解量子計算的影片，過去兩周有近一百五十萬人次觀看。量子計算這種冷門的題目一般不會吸引人，但講解的人是加拿大的年輕帥哥總理，立刻在網路瘋傳。紐時指出，杜魯多早已是網路世界的明星。

杜魯多宣揚女性主義、抱小貓熊的影片，都是社群媒體每周的熱門題材。他本月訪問「圓周理論物理研究所」，在回答記者提問時興奮地解釋什麼是量子計算，令加拿大和美國媒體讚嘆不已。

多倫多明星報讚道：「這位有加拿大新情人、瑜伽達人、女性主義總理之稱的男人，顯然急於展現他不只有俊俏的臉蛋，也有不為人知的電腦長才。」華盛頓郵報稱道：「網路寵兒杜魯多的知識沒有界線，而且還在增長。」

加拿大政論家索羅門稱杜魯多是「我們第一位網路總理，創造可以分享的重要時刻」。

索羅門並把杜魯多的政治技巧與川普相提並論：「川普若教給世人什麼，就是名人是價值很高的政治貨幣，杜魯多的形象不是兩角硬幣，而是純金條。」

專家說，像杜魯多、川普和美國總統歐巴馬之類的政治人物，都走在社群網路改變力量的前面，他們有能力在社群媒體發光，令人想起甘迺迪一九六○年在第一次電視轉播的辯論中完勝尼克森。臉書、推特等工具讓這些政治人物掌控他們要傳播的訊息。

杜魯多和他的自由黨在去年大選期間因對網路操作嫻熟，吸引大批年輕選民。但反對黨批評他膚淺，保守黨的臉書影片攻擊他講解量子計算，只是為了避免回答如何對抗恐怖主義。影片寫道：「抱歉，杜魯多先生，嚴肅的問題需要嚴肅的答案。」

也有人批評杜魯多的量子計算橋段是「事先安排的」。總理發言人艾馬德否認事先安排，並指出，杜魯多也花很多時間回答記者有關對抗恐怖主義的問題。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/world/americas/justin-trudeau-quantum-computing-canada.html

Video：Justin Trudeau on Quantum Computing
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada offered an explanation of quantum computing during a news conference on April 15, in Waterloo, Ontario.
http://nyti.ms/1NPMu8S

2016-04-28．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯田思怡