By Patrick Book

Former Regina mayor Fiacco will hit the gym with Justin Trudeau

Jul 5, 2013 | 1:52 PM

Regina's former mayor will be hitting the gym Friday afternoon with recently-elected Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau is touring the country this summer, and, on Thursday, the party added a stop in Regina to his itinerary. In addition to visiting the North Central Family Centre and checking out a pre-game event at Mosaic Stadium ahead of the Roughriders regular season home opener, he'll meet up with five-term former mayor Pat Fiacco.

While the party characterizes the event as a “photo opportunity,” Fiacco, in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon, said they'll be working out together.

“I don't know if we'll spar but we'll train together and I'll hold the pads for him maybe. We'll see what happens,” he said.

Fiacco said a mutual love for the sport is what brings them together. Before his political career began, Fiacco was a national amateur boxing champion, and over the years he has served as head official for Boxing Canada and was chosen to supervise the technical operations of the boxing tournament at the London Olympics last year. At the moment, he's the president for Boxing Canada.

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Trudeau is an avid boxing fan, having trained in the sport for some time. He won an upset victory of Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in a charity bout last year and, according to Fiacco, trains a few times a week in Ottawa and Montreal.

Fiacco acknowledged that there will likely be speculation that the appearance shows he has ties to the Liberal Party or that he will run federally for the Liberals in the future. But he insisted that it's all about the sport.

“I would suspect that people will read what they want to read into it. But I'm the president of Boxing Canada. I think it's wonderful that we can get some good PR for Boxing Canada,” he said.

Fiacco added that he has a contract with Tourism Saskatchewan and intends to fulfill it, saying he has enjoyed serving as that organization's CEO and seeing more of Saskatchewan.

Now in his 50s, Fiacco jokingly insisted when pressed that, yes, he thinks he could beat the 41-year-old in the ring.

“Yeah. Absolutely,” he laughed. “No doubt in my mind.”

Trudeau will also be making several stops in Saskatoon on Saturday, visiting the local farmer’s market and the Canada Remembers Air Show.

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On Twitter: @princealbertnow