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Even though Canadian officials have spent months  that less than one per cent of fentanyl intercepted by American border officials comes from Canada, Brosseau said: “Getting the number to zero is, in fact, a goal, and should be our goal.”

“If it’s one pound, 10 pounds, we all know the amount of deaths that that possibly could represent,” Brousseau told reporters near the Lansdowne, Ont. border crossing. “This is a national security and a public safety crisis.”

Brosseau said he expects to travel to Washington, D.C., and try to speak to Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan. But he’s spending his first two days getting briefed by law enforcement officials.

His task will be to co-ordinate efforts across Canada and between the two countries — and convince Homan that Canada is taking the fentanyl crisis seriously. The hope is that message will get through to Trump, who has threatened steep tariffs against Canada over the issue of fentanyl and also border security.

Brosseau, who was Trudeau’s deputy national security and intelligence adviser, was at least once  as a possible future RCMP commissioner.

He is seen as someone who is thoughtful, collegial, and who has a calm demeanour.

According to a senior federal official who spoke to the Star, on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly, when the Trudeau government was putting together its $1.3 billion border plan released back in December in the wake of Trump’s initial tariff threats, it was Brosseau’s idea to propose to the U.S. a joint strike force at the border. 

Last week, when Trudeau added $200 million to the border package and promised Trump he would appoint a “fentanyl czar,” the official said he wanted to respect the role of cabinet ministers who have responsibility for borders and immigration. But Trudeau also wanted to find someone who would be “totally focused” on accelerating progress on fentanyl interdiction, and who could be an effective counterpart for U.S. and Mexican partners, the official said. Brosseau’s experience at senior levels of the federal public service, meant he would have all the paperwork and security clearances necessary to immediately start the job.

Some of those people who’ve worked with him say he’s the right person for the job.

“I couldn’t ask for a better choice,” said David Chartrand, the president of the Manitoba Métis Federation, who worked closely with Brosseau when he was the RCMP’s commanding officer in the province. “I know his passion in regards to the effects of fentanyl and drugs in general, he knows how it was affecting many environments and First Nation communities.”

Brosseau spent more than two decades working at the RCMP, rose to the rank of deputy commissioner, and went on to hold several other public service jobs, including as deputy adviser on national security and intelligence to the prime minister, after serving as one of the highest-ranking officials at Transport Canada and the Fisheries and Oceans department. 

A Métis, and the youngest of seven children, Brosseau grew up on a farm in rural Alberta. He joined the Mounties in 1988 after completing his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Alberta, but it was always his goal to go to law school, according to a 2002  in the Edmonton Journal.

He would wait 10 years before making that decision.

David Percy, the dean of the University of Alberta’s law school at the time, described Brosseau as having an “unusual” background as a student, and having an “imposing” and “magnetic” figure that left a lasting impression.

“He was Métis, he was from (Bonnyville, Alta.), and he’d already served for a number of years in the RCMP, so his background was not that of the conventional law student,” Percy told the Star in an interview. “He’s tall, he’s muscular, he has a very ready smile, and he’s very easy to talk to.”

After getting his law degree, Brosseau got the chance to go to Harvard as a Fulbright scholar. He was 35 at the time, and graduated a year later with a Master of Laws in corporate and Indigenous law. He briefly worked as a lawyer in New York from 2005 to 2008, but returned to Canada after the birth of his son, leaving a lucrative law career to return to the RCMP.

He  the Edmonton Journal in 2011 that “although there is a side of me that is interested in law, ultimately it was public service that was most important to me,” and described returning to the RCMP as a “real blessing.”

He held several roles at the RCMP, taking responsibility of the public complaints department then directing the force’s contract and aboriginal policing before becoming the top cop in Manitoba in 2012.

Chartrand said that Brosseau oversaw increased RCMP attention on illegal drug trade in the province, and helped improve the relationship between police and his community.

Brosseau never got the job as the RCMP’s leader, but served as deputy commissioner from 2016 to 2019.

He dealt with several challenges in his years as a public servant: responding to calls for in the RCMP, scrutiny over taser  and the of missing and murdered Indigenous women, during a trial that found the RCMP  of not providing its members with appropriate use of force equipment following a 2014 shooting rampage in Moncton, N.B., and dealing with  during the COVID-19 pandemic while at Transport Canada.

But while Brosseau always showed an ability to deal with sensitive issues and with all kinds of people, Chartrand said Canada’s new fentanyl czar will also need a capable team — and plenty of resources — to be successful. 

And it’s not just Canada’s relationship with the U.S. that’s on the line, he said.

“He should hopefully have a full team that he has with him that tackles this thing and figures out, how do we not just stop drugs going to United States, I’m worrying about stopping drugs going into our communities, in our cities, where it’s killing our kids,” he told the Star.