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 Butts, a nurse and a first-generation Canadian daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Polish mother. He attended Bridgeport School and then St. Michael's 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's past work for the purposes of his future memoirs. It has been stated that although the MacEachen biography was never published, Butts had a thorough understanding of MacEachen's longstanding 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. Butts advised the campaigns that led to the Ontario Liberal Party's election victories in 2003 and 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.
In 2012, stemming from a two-decade-long friendship, Butts became the senior political adviser to Justin Trudeau and one of the few people with whom Trudeau consulted regularly. During Trudeau's initial time as Liberal party leader. He also assisted on the vast majority of policies on which Trudeau campaigned. He was appointed Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on November 4, 2015. On February 18, 2019, Butts stepped down as Trudeau's principal secretary stating it was in order to defend himself against allegations made against him in relation to the SNC-Lavalin Affair and to avoid drawing attention away from the work the prime minister is doing. In a statement released on Twitter, Butts denied influencing the Attorney General, noting that he specifically recruited Jody Wilson-Raybould to join the Liberal Party and was an avid supporter during both her candidacy and her tenure as a minister. Butts reiterated these claims in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on March 6, 2019. At the time of Butts' resignation, Trudeau had responded by thanking him for his service, while acknowledging the integrity, guidance, and devotion that Butts had provided him. In July 2019, Prime Minister Trudeau hired Butts back to play a key role in the Liberal 2019 election campaign.
Personal life
Butts is the nephew of the former Canadian senator Mary Alice "Peggy" Butts, whom he cites as major influence on him throughout his life. He is married to Jodi Butts, a lawyer, and they have two children, Aidan Ignatius and Ava Augusta. They resided in Toronto for 13 years until the family relocated in summer of 2016 to Gerald currently resides at Champlain Park area of Westboro, Ottawa.
