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“What do you mean?” said Trudeau.

“When you get to that level, you’ve got a hairstylist and poll numbers, people telling you which way to look at the camera and which eyebrow to raise,” DiMonte said. “The thing that people are attracted to and that people relate to, the team sweeps in and they take it away. How are you going to avoid that?”

Trudeau looked at his friend squarely. “Gerry,” he replied, “won’t let that happen.”

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Most Canadians have never heard of Gerald Butts. Most wouldn’t recognize him if they saw him. Bearded, bespectacled, sometimes even a little scruffy, he melts away from the spotlight. Yet the 42-year-old Cape Bretoner has been on the other end of the phone or at the back of the room for all of the big moments in Justin Trudeau’s political life.

Many leaders have close confidants they met before politics, whose advice and political instincts count more than anyone else’s. Stephen Harper had John Weissenberger. Chretien had Jean Pelletier. Brian Mulroney had Bernard Roy. And almost from the moment they met more than 20 years ago, two university students from very different backgrounds, Gerald Butts has played a central role in Justin Trudeau’s political career.

Some think he is the puppet-master pulling the strings of a young politician “in over his head.” Others dismiss this suggestion outright. But it’s clear Butts plays a key role in the Liberal leader’s plans.

Butts was there when Justin Trudeau wrote his famous eulogy to Pierre. They were in each other’s wedding parties. Butts’s fingerprints are evident on a range of Trudeau policies, from Senate reform and marijuana legalization to the Northern Gateway pipeline.