Hill Climbers
More cabinet chiefs of staff confirmed, as other staff hires begin rolling in
Another raft of chiefs of staff has been confirmed as news of cabinet staffing hires beyond the top-most jobs begin to trickle out.
New Government Transformation, Public Works, and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound has named Allie Chalke as his chief of staff.
Chalke was previously chief of staff to then-rural economic development minister Gudie Hutchings, a role she first stepped into in June 2023 fresh from then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office.
Chalke started in the Trudeau PMO as a senior policy adviser in 2021, and was promoted to deputy policy director in February 2022. She’s also a former director of policy to then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan, and a former Atlantic adviser and later senior policy adviser to then-finance minister Bill Morneau.
AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon, who’s also responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, has hired an experienced, albeit relatively new chief of staff, Anson Duran, to run his first-ever ministerial office.
Duran was most recently busy helping his former boss, ex-minister Pablo Rodriguez, in his campaign for Quebec Liberal Party leadership, having previously been chief of staff to Rodriguez as then-transport minister between March and October of last year—exiting shortly after Rodriguez, who’d resigned the month prior in order to run for Quebec leadership.
Prior to becoming Rodriguez’s chief of staff in March 2024, Duran had been his deputy chief of staff and director of policy as transport minister. Duran is also a former senior policy adviser to then-innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne, a past Quebec regional adviser in Trudeau’s PMO, a former policy and Quebec regional adviser to then-transport minister Marc Garneau, an ex-aide to now-Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon as the MP for Gatineau, Que., and a former lawyer with Montreal firm Robinson Sheppard Shapiro, amongst other past experience.
Duran noted his new role in a recent LinkedIn post, writing that the job offers “an incredible opportunity to help shape the future of artificial intelligence at a pivotal moment—for both the technology and society at large.”
“I’m immensely energized by the journey ahead,” he continued in the post, which he said he may or may not have had “a little help” in writing “from a very enthusiastic large language model.”
Transport and Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland now has a new chief of staff running her office in Vasken Vosguian.
Prior to his exit for Liberal Party headquarters last fall to help prep for the federal election, Andrew Bevan had been chief of staff to Freeland in her previous capacity as then-deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Vosguian was previously chief of staff to then-transport and internal trade minister Anita Anand, having first taken over as acting chief of staff in the transport office following Duran and Rodriguez’s exits last fall. Before then, Vosguian had been deputy chief of staff and director of parliamentary affairs to Rodriguez as transport minister.
Vosguian is also a past director of parliamentary affairs to Rodriguez as then-heritage minister. Between early 2020 and late 2021, he worked for Freeland as then-deputy prime minister and finance minister, beginning as a legislative assistant and ending as a senior parliamentary affairs adviser.
A former assistant to now-Industry Minister Mélanie Joly as the MP for Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que., Vosguian has been working for Liberal ministers since 2017, beginning as an executive assistant in then-Treasury Board president Scott Brison’s office. He worked his way up to senior special assistant for legislative affairs in that office, and went on to briefly tackle issues management and legislative affairs for Joyce Murray—who had held the Treasury Board portfolio between March and November 2019—as then-digital government minister.
Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault has named a second chief of staff to run his office as Quebec lieutenant.
As previously reported by Hill Climbers, Hilary Leftick has been tapped to run Guilbeault’s shop as identity and culture minister.
Former PMO media relations director Ann-Clara Vaillancourt has landed the role of chief of staff to Guilbeault as Quebec lieutenant.
A former Quebec Liberal staffer—including as press secretary to then-Quebec international relations and La Francophonie minister Christine St-Pierre—Vaillancourt has been working in Ottawa since July 2018, beginning as press secretary to then-international trade diversification minister Jim Carr.
Vaillancourt went on to work as press secretary to Champagne as then-infrastructure and communities minister before being scooped up to do the same for the Trudeau PMO at the start of 2020. After the 2021 election, Vaillancourt was promoted to lead PMO press secretary, and at the end of 2023, was elevated again to director of media relations. During the recent federal election, Vaillancourt was among those on the road with the Liberal campaign, serving as a campaign spokesperson.
Speaking of Guilbeault, the minister has settled a couple of other staffing hires in his culture and identity office, with Alisson Lévesque confirmed as director of communications and Marie Froggatt as executive assistant to the minister.
Lévesque was most recently communications lead for Guilbeault as then-environment minister, having taken on that job this past January fresh from then-diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities minister Kamal Khera’s office.
Lévesque had been working for Khera since the fall of 2022, beginning as a Quebec adviser in Khera’s office as then-seniors minister, and was promoted to director of communications there in May 2023. A month later, she followed Khera to the diversity portfolio after the minister was shuffled in July 2023, continuing as communications head. Among other past jobs, Lévesque worked as a communications adviser on France Bélisle’s successful 2021 mayoral campaign in Gatineau, Que.
Froggatt was previously executive assistant to Guilbeault as then-environment minister between April 2023 and this past January. Prior to being hired by Guilbeault, she worked for Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, last as executive assistant in the office of the director general of ISED’s spectrum management operations branch.
Back on the chief of staff beat, Secretary of State for the Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions Wayne Long has hired his former assistant Kevin Collins to take on the role.
Collins is another first-time chief of staff, having most recently been deputy chief of staff and director of parliamentary affairs and issues management to then-housing minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.
Collins started out as a constituency assistant in Long’s office as the MP for the then-named riding of Saint John-Rothesay, N.B., in the summer of 2017, and became Long’s legislative assistant in Ottawa a few months later at the start of 2018. Collins managed Long’s successful 2019 and 2021 re-election campaigns, and after the latter election landed his first cabinet-level job as a legislative assistant to then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president Dominic LeBlanc.
Collins joined then-housing and diversity and inclusion minister Ahmed Hussen’s office as an issues adviser and parliamentary affairs assistant at the start of 2022. After now-Justice Minister Sean Fraser took over as housing minister in July 2023, Collins stayed on as an issues manager and senior parliamentary affairs adviser, and subsequently worked his way up, first to deputy director of parliamentary affairs and issues management, then to director outright.
As recently reported by Politico, Secretary of State for Children and Youth Anna Gainey has tapped Alexander Jagric to be her chief of staff.
Jagric ran Gainey’s recent successful re-election campaign in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount, Que.—a.k.a. NDGW—and earlier this year worked on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s successful leadership campaign.
It’s a return to the Hill for Jagric, who hasn’t been walking parliamentary halls since his departure from the Trudeau PMO in May 2024.
A former Quebec Liberal staffer, Jagric first joined Trudeau’s office in the fall of 2020 as a legislative assistant, and worked his way up to deputy director of issues management and parliamentary affairs, and then director of the same by the end of 2023—his most recent role.
Jagric is also a former assistant to Gainey’s riding successor, Garneau, as then-transport minister. Jagric ran Garneau’s successful 2015 campaign in NDGW—returning to do the same in 2019—and was subsequently hired as a special assistant for issues management in Garneau’s transport office.
After the 2019 election, Jagric spent almost a year working for then-innovation minister Navdeep Bains, ending as a senior adviser for issues and parliamentary affairs, before exiting to join the PMO.
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