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Nine years ago, Alexandre Trudeau huddled in a Sunni family’s Baghdad living room as missile fire rained onto the city.

There could have been a safer way for the second son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau to cover the Iraq War. But he insisted on being one of the few journalists to live among the people of Baghdad as their city burned.

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Trudeau has made a career of living dangerously. Soon after producing Embedded in Baghdad, he joined a group of rebel fighters on a perilous trip across the Sudanese desert as the country sank into civil war.

Documentary work also brought him to Gaza, Serbia, Liberia and other turbulent destinations.

Now, Alexandre “Sacha” Trudeau, 38, is taking a break from globetrotting to act as a senior adviser in his brother Justin’s campaign for leader of the Liberal Party. It’s a move that may seem surprising coming from a man who, for years, insisted he was apolitical.

“(Sacha) would often say quite publicly that he didn’t even vote in certain elections,” said John English, a Trudeau family biographer and former Liberal MP. “But I know him enough to know he’s profoundly political. He’s just much more interested in the philosophy, the ideas behind the politics. He’s very much his father’s son in that regard.”