They're usually weighing in on the day's issues at Parliament Hill, but on Wednesday night, MP Justin Trudeau and Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau prepared for a different type of battle.
Organizers of a Saturday boxing match in support of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation recorded the opponents' weight and height in advance of their big day in the ring.
Trudeau, who is 40 years old, came in at a lanky six-foot-two and 175 pounds. The muscle-bound Brazeau, who is 37, stands at a much stockier five-foot-eleven and 183 pounds.
The weigh-in was held at the Aulde Dubliner pub in Ottawa's Byward Market area, and saw the two men trading verbal jabs in advance of the real thing.
All that's left now is the "Fight for the Cure Gala," an annual event since 2008 billed as "Olympic style boxing, including local business leaders and celebrity bouts."
The evening also features a fight between two local realtors, and one between a restaurant manager and a journalist. It will be held at Ottawa's Hampton Inn, accompanied by an "an elegant gourmet dinner."
Tickets are sold out.
Brazeau, the youngest sitting Canadian senator, is an aboriginal activist from Kitigan Zibi, a Quebec Algonquin community about 135 kilometres north of Ottawa. As the former chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, he faced allegations that he and other Congress staffers misappropriated nearly $260,000 in funds, discovered during a Health Canada audit. Brazeau countered that the agency was merely asking for supplementary documentation to justify about $200,000 in expenses, which the Congress complied with.
He's also a former member of the Canadian Forces and has a karate black belt. He has raised $3,000 in donations for cancer research, according to the foundation's website.
A betting website is giving him three-to-one odds of beating Trudeau.
Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is one of the most visible Liberal members of Parliament, representing Montreal's Papineau riding. Among his current portfolios is one as the party's critic for amateur sport.
He says he's been training for about six months for the fight, suggesting he may surprise some people with his abilities.
He ended up matched against Brazeau after Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Calgary MP Rob Anders turned down Trudeau's initial challenge.
