Liberal B.C. Premier Clark continues to bring in federal Tory top-dogs
B.C. Premier Christy Clark's latest top-dog Conservative additions considered
an effort to build up 'Conservative credentials' in the decision- and
policy-making processes of the party.
Photograph by Jake Wright, The Hill Times
This just in: Liberal B.C. Premier Christy Clark's new director of
communications, Sara MacIntyre, pictured here with Dan Dugas, former director
of communications for Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
By LAURA RYCKEWAERT |
Published: Monday, 02/27/2012 12:00 am EST
http://www.hilltimes.com/pre/column/Hill%20Climbers
Liberal B.C. Premier Christy Clark, a former Hill staffer herself, is
collecting big-name Conservative staffers like they're going out of fashion,
and her latest Tory-blue accessory is recently-departed PMO press secretary
Sara MacIntyre, who will introduce her media-managing flair to Ms. Clark's
office as her new director of communications starting March 6.
Ms. MacIntyre takes over Ms. Clark's communications from Shane Mills, who will
in turn become Ms. Clark's new director of issues management.
The move is somewhat of a homecoming for Ms. MacIntyre. Though an Ontario
native, Ms. MacIntyre spent a number of years living in Victoria and serving as
the B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Moreover, Ms.
MacIntyre is already familiar with some of her co-workers-to-be.
During Ms. Clark's 2011 leadership campaign, she brought in the talents of
Conservative pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos, a former Reform Party policy
adviser who worked with Mr. Harper, to conduct voter tracking. Now, Mr.
Pantazopoulos serves as Ms. Clark's principal secretary, working on long-term
policy and priorities and intergovernmental relations. In January, Ken
Boessenkool, a former strategist and adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
joined Ms. Clark's office to serve as her new chief of staff.
Tim Powers, a former Conservative Cabinet staffer and now vice-president of
Summa Strategies, said as far he knows, the three are friends and have worked
on campaigns together in the past.
"When you have those friendships and you've worked well together, it's not
unusual for your next political mission that you find yourselves aligned
together in a different place where you all have mutual interests," said Mr.
Powers.
British Columbia is a hot spot right now on the spectrum of Canadian politics,
in anticipation of a 2013 provincial election. The currently governing B.C.
Liberals, who voted Ms. Clark in as leader just last year, have slipped in
support largely due to two crucial blows: the province's all-too-recent HST
debacle, and the corresponding re-emergence of the B.C. Conservative party, led
by former Conservative MP John Cummins, the former MP for Delta-Richmond East,
B.C.,
"I think there is a sense among conservatives- whether they be those who are
supporting the B.C. Liberals or those who are supporting the B.C.
Conservatives-that choosing the NDP would be a major step backwards, and they
harken back to the damage that they believe previous NDP regimes have brought
forward. So I think the threat, or whatever term you want to label Adrian Dix's
party as presenting, has been enough to incite a lot of people to become pretty
active," said Mr. Powers.
An Angus Reid public opinion online survey of 800 British Columbians, conducted
between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29 of this year, found that the B.C. Liberals had only
28 per cent support. Mr. Dix's NDP ranked at 42 per cent support, while Mr.
Cummins' Conservatives had 19 per cent support, according to the survey.
"In the particular and peculiar world of B.C. politics, the New Democrats have
always been a serious force to be reckoned with. So decades ago, Liberals and
Conservatives coalesced into what is now the B.C. Liberal Party," explained
Yaroslav Baran, a former Conservative staffer and now a principal at
Earnscliffe Strategy Group.
Under former leader Gordon Campbell, the B.C. Liberals solidly maintained their
centrist identity, but new leader Ms. Clark's Liberal roots have disrupted the
balance, said Mr. Baran. These latest top-dog Conservative additions, he said,
are an attempt to build up "Conservative credentials" in the decision- and
policy-making processes of the party.
"When [Campbell] was Premier he was always very careful not to formally align
himself federally with either the Liberals or the Conservatives, and that's
been a tradition with the B.C. Liberal party," said Mr. Baran. "[Ms. Clark], in
an effort to keep that coalition solid and to stem any additional bleeding to
the revitalized Conservative party, has made, I would argue, a very wise and
pragmatic decision to surround herself with strong conservatives to help keep
the coalition together."
So with the NDP doomsday clock ticking closer and closer to midnight,
Conservatives are flocking West to stave off what they consider to be the
political equivalent of an apocalypse in B.C.
Former federal Cabinet ministers Stockwell Day and Jay Hill have publicly
thrown their support behind Ms. Clark.
And while a Conservative prime minister would want to see more
conservative-minded governments across the country, this convergence of former
Harper staffers doesn't have traces of Mr. Harper's hand, said Mr. Powers.
Instead, he said, it's a question of relationships and geography.
Mr. Boessenkool's history of lobbying on behalf of Enbridge Inc. may have some
drawing connections between his new employment and the Conservative
government's interests with regard to Enbridge's Northern Gateway Project, but
to do so would be a simplification of things, said Mr. Powers.
"For Ken, it's a case of being somebody who's from the West Coast, who cares
deeply about public policy," said Mr. Powers.
Moreover, Mr. Boessenkool was friends with Ms. Clark before joining her staff,
and as reported by The Globe and Mail, it was he who brought Mr. Pantazopoulos
to Ms. Clark's attention; both have worked in conservative politics since the
early 1990s.
Ms. MacIntyre first began handling Prime Minister Harper's communications as an
associate press secretary in the early fall of 2009. One year later, in the
fall of 2010, Ms. MacIntyre was promoted to become a full-fledged press
secretary, filling the vacancy left following the promotion of press secretary
Dimitri Soudas to the role of director of communications.
Mr. Harper's communications team-now led by director Angelo Persichilli,
director Mike White, associate director and spokesperson Andrew MacDougall,
deputy director of communications Stephen Lecce, and press secretary Carl
Vallée-make up a formidable force on the Hill, and Ms. MacIntyre has developed
a strong reputation in communications through her time in the PMO. Ms.
MacIntyre officially departed from the Langevin Block office on Feb. 10.
Ms. MacIntyre, who was recently honoured with a going-away shindig by
journalists, confirmed her move to B.C. in on her Facebook page on Feb. 17:
"Excited to be joining Premier Clark's team and heading back to the best
province in the country! Looking forward to new challenges, opportunities and
keeping B.C. moving forward."
Said Mr. Baran of Ms. Clark's Conservative hires: "More than anything else,
they bring their personal skill set. Dimitri is a very talented adviser
and.he's a very good pollster.And same thing with Sara, I think she's excellent
at her job as a media relations adviser."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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