Liberal leader Justin Trudeau holds Addison Quinn as he greets supporters at a barn party in St. Peters Bay, PEI, on Aug. 28, 2013.ANDREW VAUGHAN/The Canadian Press
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Justin Trudeau laughs when a reporter asks if he'll be making an announcement at his next stop in rural Nova Scotia.
It's an unguarded moment at his recent caucus and the rookie Liberal leader is simply being honest about his strategy – one that is very lean on policy.
For Mr. Trudeau, this summer has been nothing but a honeymoon as he's riding high in the opinion polls and monopolizing the spotlight. He is proving that he can win at politics simply with a smile and a wave.
But as his MPs prepare to return to Ottawa next week in anticipation of the Harper government's Throne Speech expected in October, there are bigger questions.
How long can he go on without telling Canadians where he and his party stand on the important issues of the day?
According to pollster Nik Nanos, Mr. Trudeau has about six months.
"He should be prepared for the next budget to explain how a Liberal budget would be different than the Conservative budget and he has to be very clear on that," says Mr. Nanos. "Come budget time – that is actually a very fair time for Canadians to wonder … how would you be different?"
Mr. Nanos adds that Mr. Trudeau needs to talk about his vision for the economy and how he'll create jobs. Along with health care, jobs and the economy are the issues most important to Canadians and ones that drive voting behaviour, he says.
At his summer caucus last month, Mr. Trudeau said he wouldn't be rolling out a policy platform until 2015, when an election is expected, arguing he doesn't want to subvert the process of consulting with Canadians just because some people are impatient.
As he was during his leadership campaign, he is being criticized for not providing specifics. Mr. Trudeau talks about the plight of the middle class, for example, but so far has offered no prescription.
"He has to show that he is more than a pretty boy," says Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal cabinet minister and now political commentator in the important battleground of Quebec. "Just going on his charm and newness ... that will catch him."
Quebec, he believes, is up for grabs in the next election with the real fight being between the Trudeau Liberals and Mulcair NDP.
Mr. Trudeau's strategists, meanwhile, believe the clamour for policy is a "phony issue."
Dominic LeBlanc, the New Brunswick MP and Liberal House leader, argues that Mr. Trudeau has announced policy, beginning with his leadership campaign last year when he staked out a position on the proposed $15-billion takeover of Nexen Inc. by China's state-owned CNOOC Inc., urging the government to approve it, which it did eventually.
On issues including his stand on legalizing marijuana and his opposition to the Parti Québécois' secular charter, he forced his opponents, Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair, to react to him.
He says Mr. Trudeau is forcing his opponents to react because he says "what a lot of people are thinking."
"He is not afraid to turn straight into the headwind," said Mr. LeBlanc, adding that no one is coaching him to be authentic – and he's not about to change.
Although recent polls have him scoring higher than his counterparts when it comes to questions about who would make the best prime minister, he doesn't score as well on questions of competence or handling the economy.
Attracting attention on the pot issue may help raise his profile but, as Mr. Nanos notes, it does not drive votes.
"I think for a lot of Canadians, they are intrigued by Justin Trudeau, they believe there is potential there but there are still a lot of question marks in terms of where he stands," says Mr. Nanos.
Jane Taber is The Globe's Atlantic bureau chief.