Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by mass hysteria as he leaves his closing press conference following the APEC Summit in Manila, on Thursday, November 19, 2015.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A screaming crowd of international press and summit volunteers mobbed Justin Trudeau in Manila as Canada's new celebrity Prime Minister wrapped up his first week on the world stage.
The situation clearly had Mr. Trudeau's security detail nervous as they rushed the Prime Minister through hundreds of people in order to exit the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit media centre.
"We can't explain why we're doing that. We're running. And after, we just said to ourselves, 'Oh my God. What did we just do?' " said Marlene Alcaide, a journalist with TV5 in the Philippines, moments after Mr. Trudeau had exited the building.
"He's so hot and intelligent and he just took all our stress away," said Kaye Imson, another TV5 reporter, when asked to explain what motivated her to join the rushing crowd.
Ms. Imson was asked if her interest in Mr. Trudeau was inspired by any particular policy position.
"It's about his looks, mostly," she answered.
Mr. Trudeau is in Manila to attend the APEC summit, an annual gathering of 21 Pacific Rim nations, which wrapped up Thursday.
Mr. Trudeau's departure from the APEC summit marks the end of a hectic week travelling around the world in a frenzy of international diplomacy. Earlier in the week, he attended a meeting of G20 world leaders in Antalya, Turkey.
Several international leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met with Mr. Trudeau this week, went on to recall positive relations between their countries and Mr. Trudeau's father, Pierre, who was prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and then from 1980 to 1984.
Prior to dashing for the exit, Mr. Trudeau appeared flustered as he made his way through the crowd in order to get inside a news conference room at the conference centre for international media covering the summit.
The buzzing crowd outside the room could be heard throughout his closing news conference, as he attempted to deliver a message focused on the summit agenda of economic growth.
Mr. Trudeau was asked to comment on the celebrity aspect of the attention that he is receiving and whether it is taking away from his policy agenda.
The Prime Minister responded by discussing the challenges of growing up as the son of a well-known prime minister.
Pierre Trudeau's popularity in the late 1960s was dubbed Trudeaumania because of the pop star treatment he received.
"On a personal level, when I first announced that I was going into politics eight years ago, there was a little bit of buzz and interest in my father and my story and rapidly after a few months of working hard in [the riding of] Papineau, I got people to focus on the actual substance because I had things to say," said Mr. Trudeau.
"Similar things once I first got elected. Similar things happened once I got to be leader of the Liberal Party and, again, by the time I became Prime Minister in Canada it was sort of old hat for people. This is fresh on the world stage. We'll take some interest right now and convert that into the substance of what we're talking about."
Mr. Trudeau later noted that throughout his life, he has come across people who either like him or dislike him purely because of how they felt about his father.
"So throughout my life I have focused on what I have to do and the substance of what I put forward and that has left me both grounded and able to focus, regardless of perceptions or attention to things external," he said.
Bill Curry