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Guest Essay

By Stephen Marche

Mr. Marche is the author, most recently, of “The Next Civil War: Dispatches From the American Future.”

The former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and the pop star Katy Perry are now publicly a couple: They acknowledged it, naturally enough, by way of Instagram.

Given that many Canadians, myself included, decided in 2025 that they were collectively tired of Mr. Trudeau, the prospect of the divorced world leader surfacing in such a classically Trudeau-ian manner could be cringe-worthy. For those outside Canada, it might even be jarring that a sidelined world leader is openly cavorting with a woman whose most notorious lyric is “I kissed a girl and I liked it / The taste of her cherry ChapStick.” I’d argue, though, that it’s warmly reassuring: In a world of so much change and turmoil, it’s nice to know that some things will reliably play out exactly as you expected.

As a public figure, Mr.........

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