Gerald Butts

Early life and education

Butts grew up in the Bridgeport neighbourhood of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, with three older brothers and one older sister. He is the son of Charles William "Charlie" Butts, a coal miner who was 56 years old when Butts was born and retired when Butts was 6 years old, and Rita Monica (Yorke) Butts, a nurse and a first-generation Canadian daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Polish mother. He attended Bridgeport School (now closed) and then St. Michael's High School (now a junior high school).

He received a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. It was at McGill that he was introduced to Justin Trudeau by a mutual friend. There, he was also elected president of the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate and won the national debating championships two years in a row. He briefly attended York University to pursue a Ph.D.

Career

Upon graduating from Mcgill University, his first job was working as a research assistant in the Senate office of Allan MacEachen. There he organized MacEachen past work for the purposes of his future memoirs. It has been stated that although Allan MacEachen biography was never published, Butts had a throughout understanding of MacEachen's long standing political career.

In 1999, Butts became a policy director within the Government of Ontario. He was the policy secretary, and later the principal secretary, in the office of the then premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, in Toronto. Prior to the 2007 election, Butts was a McGuinty insider. After the election, he became McGuinty’s principal adviser. As one of his biographical notes describes it, Butts "was intimately involved in all of the government’s significant environmental initiatives, from the Greenbelt and Boreal Conservation plan to the coal phase-out and toxic reduction strategy."

Butts had previously worked with Senator Allan MacEachen, and with George Smitherman. With Butts' influence, the Ontario Liberal Party won the Ontario provincial elections in 2003 and in 2007.

On June 25, 2008, Butts was announced as the president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund Canada. He officially took up the position on September 2, 2008, succeeding Mike Russill.

On October 16, 2012, Butts left WWF-Canada to become the political advisor to Justin Trudeau. His position at WWF-Canada was filled by David Miller, a former mayor of Toronto.

On December 13, 2012, Butts was interviewed by Steve Paikin for The Agenda on the topic of "The Best Way to Clean Up the Environment". Butts has published articles in the Boston Book Review, the Literary Review of Canada, and Gravitas. He has also appeared on television programs such as W5 and TSN's Off the Record.

2015 Canadian election and premiership of Justin Trudeau

Stemming from a two-decade-long friendship, Butts became the senior political adviser to Justin Trudeau in 2012. Therefore, he is among the five people with whom Trudeau consults regularly. He assisted on the vast majority of policies on which Trudeau campaigned.

Previously, during Trudeau's initial time as Liberal party leader, Butts advised on such decisions and issues as the legalizing of marijuana, the expulsion of the entire Liberal senate caucus, and Trudeau's position on the Northern Gateway pipeline.

On September 21, 2016, it was reported by the Globe and Mail that Butts charged moving expenses to Canadian taxpayers in the amount of $126,669.56 in order to relocate his residence from Toronto to Ottawa. In the wake of the controversy, he apologized and said he would repay $41,618.62.

Personal life

Butts is the nephew of a former Canadian senator, the Hon. Mary Alice "Peggy" Butts, whom he cites as major influence on him throughout his life.

He is married to Jodi (Heimpel) Butts, a lawyer, and they have two children, Aidan Ignatius (born May 6, 2006) and Ava Augusta (born December 1, 2007). They resided in High Park, Toronto for 13 years until the family relocated in summer of 2016 to Westboro, Ottawa.