The Moment. In this daily feature until Election Day, the National Postcaptures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail.

As dawn broke over Southern Alberta, a lone figure carried his tiny craft to the misty waters of the Bow River.

A great, glass metropolis now stands on prairie soil that was untouched by European hands a mere century ago. But a wild thread of Rocky Mountain waters still courses through this city on its way to Hudson Bay.

The mighty Bow has carried travellers, warriors and chiefs since time immemorial. And on this chilly morning, it felt the paddle of a new leader: A humble man whose veins coursed with the history and majesty of this place — and alone knew how to bring it peace and prosperity.

Or, at least, that might be what the Liberal campaign was going for when they had Justin Trudeau paddle around for the cameras Thursday morning.

“Morning paddle on the Bow River. See you at the Globe Debate,” Tweeted Justin Trudeau against a postcard-worthy picture of the Liberal leader paddling his red canoe into the sunrise.

As the Liberals face down two of the most slow-moving party leaders in recent memory, it’s fair to say that their campaign has been somewhat obsessed with demonstrating that their 43-year-old leader is very, very fit.

Just last week, Justin Trudeau climbed the demanding Grouse Grind outside Vancouver. Supporters and journalists were left behind as Trudeau sped to the top of the 853-metre peak. He logged an impressive time of 54 minutes, while most amateurs are lucky to do it in 90 minutes.

Liberal campaign ads often feature Trudeau in the act of walking, either in a park near Parliament Hill or while climbing a down-moving escalator.

And even Trudeau’s endorsers are not immune to breaking a sweat when they’re stumping for the Liberals.

On Wednesday morning, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne endorsed Toronto Liberal candidate Bill Morneau by inviting news cameras to watch them jog together. Two years ago, an entire ad for the Ontario Liberals featured Wynne running through farm fields to the sound of whimsical piano music.

“There are things most people don’t know about me. One: I love running,” she says in a narration.

At the federal level, critics wouldn’t be wrong to point out that all this Liberal fitness seems a little déjà vu.

Trudeau’s father Pierre, of course, was the first — and last — Prime Minister to be repeatedly photographed performing feats of strength and agility.

Trudeau Sr. slid down a banister during the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. He took to a trampoline one Canada Day outside the National Arts Centre. He busted out some wicked Frisbee moves on the 1979 campaign trail.

And he paddled. He paddled in buckskins. He paddled the Rio Negro on a state trip to Argentina. He paddled epic canoe trips as a young man.

“Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute … paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature,” wrote a young Pierre in a quote that has been pinned to many a canoe club bulletin board in the decades since.

Needless to say, such sprightliness is hard to find among the greying, overweight leaders the younger Trudeau now hopes to defeat.