Royson James on Tuesday’s Trudeaumania,

Long before noon Wednesday, they were staking out a standing-room spot with a view of the news conference platform raised in the rotunda at Toronto City Hall.

The curious, the determined, the entrepreneurial and the desperate were there: Sophie seeking a selfie, Wai creatively in search of a job, Nicholas looking to promote his brand and Paul desperately slagging Uber X. The prime minister was coming. Not just any old Joe-Brian-Jean-Paul-Stephen kind of a PM. We’re talking Justin.

“Over here, Justin,” the calls rang out as the country’s young, fit, photogenic leader bounded onto Nathan Phillips Square towards the now-famous TORONTO sign. “No, over here Justin.” “We love you Justin!” The last time a politician took so long to get across the square was the day the notorious You-Know-Who admitted to smoking crack and consorting with criminals.

But here was a mob scene of a different kind: secret security guys not so secretly funnelling the PM through the gauntlet of cameras — professional and smartphone — adult women acting like blushing teeny boppers as the PM and the mayor approached city hall.

Aging civic workers turned admirers this day. There was Lydia, perennially fussing over budget forecasts and projections, now pointing a camera phone.

“It’s just cool,” she says. “It’s not too often you get a PM like this — one that you would want to be close to.”

“Justin, can I take a selfie with you?” a man calls out. He gets his selfie before Mayor John Tory nudges the PM into the building.

Inside, another scrum of giddy citizens, snap, snap, snapping away to record the historic moment for future boasts.

Few can remember the last time any Canadian prime minister made an official visit to Toronto’s seat of government.

PMs are better known for giving the country’s largest city the back of the hand rather than a helping hand.

Jean Chrétien — like Trudeau — held every seat in Toronto and stubbornly refused to engage around an urban agenda — prompting numerous spats with local leaders such as then-mayor Mel Lastman.

Justin reached the top of the stairs and veered left towards the mayor’s office.

Wai Law of Richmond Hill was waiting. She stuck out her hand with a business card with a key piece of information: “Executive Assistant for hire.” Justin took it. “I’m not working (downsized at Manulife),” she tells the Star. “What better way to get a job than to go to the PM directly.”

Just before Law’s encounter, Justin was stopped in his tracks by Nicholas Montgomery, 20, wearing his boldly designed “Dreamy Trudeau Sweater,” featuring a full-body Trudeau on a horse.

How could Justin bypass the online Toronto entrepreneur whose Trudeau sweaters are selling around the world, most robustly in Alberta, no less. Justin signed Nicholas’ shirt. “Trudeaumania is here,” Nicholas says. Sales should spike.

By the time the 1 p.m. news conference started, it was 1:46 and the public address announcer had already told everyone that the fire alarm was, in fact, not an emergency and received a rousing applause from a mass of citizens crowding the floor of the rotunda and ringing the second-floor balcony.

Reporters lobbed questions and the PM waxed on about “respectful, collaborative partnership” with cities, recognized Torontonians for opening their “hearts, homes and wallets” to Syrian refugees, comforted smaller cities that his promised infrastructure spending was for small cities and large ones and spoke to the choir by saying Toronto is great because of its immigrants, not in spite of them.

Leaving the podium, a gaggle of cabbies attracted the PM with a message many here have heard repeatedly: Uber is killing the cab industry. Can he please do something to help?

“We want him to shoot down Uber. It’s affecting our livelihood,” said Paul Sekhon. “We ask for support ’cause John Tory is not doing anything. After Trudeau, only God can help us.”

The PM listened for a moment, then was hustled out.

So, what did I think of the Justin? Ask someone else, please.

My cockatiel’s name was Pierre. My son’s middle name is Elliott and my dad told me over and over again, even when voting for mayor: “Don’t forget, it’s Trudeau why we’re in this country.”

If you love the cow, you have to love the calf. Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca