It’s easy to disagree with Justin Trudeau on the carbon tax, health care, housing and a host of issues plaguing Canadians nowadays.
But one area of likely common ground with the prime minister is agreeing that The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 Star Wars prequel to 1977’s A New Hope, is unquestionably the best of the franchise (at least to date).
The topic of Trudeau’s lifelong fascination with George Lucas’ and now Disney’s iconic sci-fi world arose again at the end of the prime minister’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night.
The host, also an uber fan of the franchise, showed a clip of Trudeau leaving the Ottawa premiere of 1983’s Return of the Jedi (RotJ).
“It was better than the Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars, or at least I think so,” a 12-year-old Trudeau, wearing a suit and tie to a movie theatre, responds when a local television reporter asks him how he felt about the final film of the original trilogy.
Reflecting on the Ottawa event, Trudeau noted “There was, like, radio station winners. It wasn’t a real premiere.”
But the Empire statement prompted Colbert to ask if the review holds up after more than 40 years.
“No, the review doesn’t hold up. When I was a child. I spoke as a child and now I am a man,” Trudeau says before finishing, “Empire is the best Star Wars movie.”
Justin Trudeau on The Late Show — cringe or win?
It’s a clarification he’s publicly made before, but this admission was made on the most-watched late-night show in the United States.
But where does mega-fan Trudeau — who once sported Chewbacca socks during a Bloomberg Global Business Forum — land on other Star Wars movies and TV shows?
In a 2015 Huffington Post Q’n’A shortly before becoming prime minister for the first time, he ranked the first six movies in the Skywalker saga. After Empire, his list goes Hope, RotJ, 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith — both polarizing films among hardcore fans and both starring Canadian actor Hayden Christensen portraying Anakin Skywalker during his gradual drift to the Dark Side.
“Too bad there was never a 1 made,” he noted at the time, choosing, like many devoted fans, to ignore 1999’s abhorred Phantom Menace, the first episode of the prequel series.
For Episodes 7, 8 and 9 — all released since he was elected — Trudeau sat down with kids from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for special screenings of all three.
After watching The Force Awakens in 2015, beloved by the majority of fans, Trudeau took to Twitter with: “Spoiler: It was Amazing.”
Around the same time, a young boy at a Maclean’s magazine town hall event asked him if all of Harrison Ford’s hype about the movie was to be believed.
“I don’t know what Harrison Ford said about it, but I can tell you it is as good as I hoped,” he replied.
“I was your age when I first saw Star Wars and like everyone, or everyone I knew of my generation — maybe I just hung out with geeks — it was a life-changing movie and I am very confident that this new iteration of it is going to make everybody very, very, happy,” Trudeau told the boys and the audience.
He also invited children to a 2016 screening of Rogue One, the well-received and tonally unique standalone prequel to the Skywalker series. Afterwards, he called it “the best of the Star Wars prequels.”
When The Last Jedi came out in 2017, Trudeau, this time joined by his two oldest children, took in a screening with more CHEO kids, along with some from the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa.
“The force is strong with this group of kids,” he tweeted. “As for The Last Jedi: outstanding.” The next day, at a Liberal caucus holiday party covered by The Canadian Press, he told guests it was a “real milestone” in his life.
As for 2019’s ill-fated Rise of Skywalker, the epic story’s conclusion that fell completely flat with viewers and had Star Wars fundamentalists calling for its removal from the precious cannon, Trudeau tweeted: “Our review? We loved #TheRiseOfSkywalker!”
There’s no word on whether his personal ranking has changed since the newest three were released, but he has spoken publicly about other Star Wars property that’s been released since.
In an annual holiday chat on Terry DiMonte’s podcast and YouTube channel last year, the host asked Trudeau what he’s watching on long flights to bureaucratic meetings around the world.
“Andor,” he replies, then finds out DiMonte hasn’t seen the 2022 Disney+ political spy drama that has a much-anticipated second season due sometime in 2025.
“Dude! You’ve gotta see it. It is so good. It’s everything that Star Wars could be and should be. It’s thoughtful, it’s gritty, it’s not filled with cameos by a digital Luke Skywalker, it’s just real.”
The cameos comment might have some thinking Trudeau is not a fan of The Mandalorian series, which featured an actor sporting a CGI face of original Skywalker actor Mark Hamill in a season finale, but the prime minister doesn’t seem to have stated one way or another how he feels about the show that introduced Grogu — better known as Baby Yoda — to the cannon and the world.
Perhaps he’s waiting for the promised 2026 Mandalorian & Grogu film before weighing in on their part in the universe of stories.
One thing is for certain, on May 4, 2025, whether he’s still leading the nation, Trudeau will undoubtedly be sending unofficial Star Wars Day greetings to Canadians via social media, like this year’s bit with Christensen.
The bit ends with Trudeau opening a briefcase containing a light sabre — the weapon of Jedi and Sith alike. What colour his blade lights up to be isn’t revealed.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.