MONTREAL

Awkward family reunion alert: Trudeau, Blanchet distant cousins, says Ancestry.ca

CTV News Montreal

Adam Kovac CTVNewsMontreal.ca Digital Reporter

Published Friday, October 18, 2019 11:35AM EDT Last Updated Friday, October 18, 2019 4:12PM EDT

Federal party leaders Green Party leader Elizabeth May, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pose for a photograph before the Federal leaders debate in Gatineau, Que. on Monday, October 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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MONTREAL -- Some families just don’t get along. Case in point: the fractious relationship between cousins Justin Trudeau and Yves-Francois Blanchet.

It turns out the leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Bloc Quebecois are relatives - albeit very distantly.

According to genealogy website Ancestry.ca, the two men are eighth cousins.

In a statement, the site said the familial link goes back 350 years, to the marriage of Francois Hamelin and Madeleine Aubert.

"It's always interesting to find a relationship between two people who are closely linked by their work," said Ancestry.ca’s family history expert Lesley Anderson. “Even more so when they are rivals, whether in business or politics.

"It is often said that differences of opinion are common amongst family members. And this relationship illustrates this statement oh so very well.”

This isn't the first time Trudeau has been discovered to be related to a political rival; in 2015 Ancestry.ca revealed that Trudeau and then-NDP leader Thomas Mulcair were ninth cousins.