Hill Climbers
Ministers LeBlanc, Hodgson, Thompson make key staffing hires
Privy Council President and Intergovernmental Affairs, Canada-U.S. Trade, and One Canadian Economy Minister Dominic LeBlanc—say that five times fast—is making progress in firming up his team, with directors of communications and operations now confirmed.
Tapped to oversee operations for LeBlanc is Alex Axiotis-Perez, who’s been doing the same for the minister since the start of 2023, beginning during LeBlanc’s time as then-minister of intergovernmental affairs, infrastructure, and communities.
LeBlanc has since also been minister of public safety, democratic institutions, and intergovernmental affairs; and minister of finance and intergovernmental affairs.
Since interning with the Liberal research bureau over the summer of 2018, Axiotis-Perez has worked as a constituency assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos, and as a scheduling assistant to LeBlanc as then-intergovernmental affairs, northern affairs, and internal trade minister. In January 2020, she joined then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office, initially as special assistant to his chief of staff Katie Telford. About a year and a half later, Axiotis-Perez was promoted to policy adviser in the PMO, and in 2022, became a tour advance—her last role before exiting to once again work for LeBlanc.
Leading communications for the minister is another familiar face: Jean-Sébastien Comeau.
Comeau has been director of communications to LeBlanc since September 2024, and has been working for him since May 2021, beginning as a press secretary and communications adviser in LeBlanc’s office as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. Before then, Comeau was working for the federal agriculture minister. Initially hired as a special assistant to then-minister Lawrence MacAulay, Comeau was kept on after Marie-Claude Bibeau took over the portfolio in March 2019, and by 2020 had been promoted to press secretary.
Also in place tackling communications for LeBlanc are Gabriel Brunet, who continues as press secretary and senior communications adviser to the minister, and Ève Loignon-Giroux as senior communications adviser.
Brunet was first hired as press secretary to LeBlanc in September 2024, fresh from the environment minister’s office where Brunet had been working since February 2021, starting as a special assistant for communications to then-minister Jonathan Wilkinson and ending as parliamentary affairs adviser to then-minister Steven Guilbeault. Prior to joining Wilkinson’s office, Brunet had most recently worked for public relations firms Mongeau Pellerin and Torchia Communications.
Loignon-Giroux has been working for LeBlanc since 2023, and previously interned in his office as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president.
As previously reported by Hill Climbers, Brandan Rowe is chief of staff to LeBlanc.
There are likewise a handful of staff updates for Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, including the hiring of Samir Kassam as deputy chief of staff and director of policy.
Kassam had been policy director to Hodgson’s portfolio predecessor, Wilkinson, since the start of 2024, beginning as director of policy for sustainable resource development specifically before becoming director outright last summer.
A former assistant to then-Ontario Liberal MP Kyle Peterson, Kassam first joined the natural resources minister’s office at the end of 2018 as executive assistant to the chief of staff to then-minister Amarjeet Sohi. Seamus O’Regan took over the portfolio following the 2019 election, and Kassam became a legislative assistant and assistant to the parliamentary secretary, then parliamentary affairs and policy adviser, and finally issues manager and policy adviser before exiting to join then-trade minister Mary Ng’s team after the 2021 election.
Kassam worked as a policy adviser, and later senior policy adviser, to Ng for a little more than two years in all before returning to the natural resources office.
Angelo Molhem is staying with the energy and natural resources office, and has been elevated to senior parliamentary affairs and Quebec adviser to Hodgson.
Molhem has been with the office since November 2023, beginning as a parliamentary affairs and Quebec adviser to then-minister Wilkinson. According to his LinkedIn profile, he helped oversee Get Out The Vote efforts in Quebec during the recent federal election.
Also so far hired to stay on in the office under Hodgson are Arash Randjbar as senior digital adviser, and Charlotte Power as issues and communications adviser.
A former reporter with the Daily Hive in Vancouver, Randjbar was first hired to the energy and natural resources office by then-minister Wilkinson this past January. Before then, he’d spent a few months as a special assistant for communications to then-Treasury Board president Anita Anand. Randjbar is also a former digital producer with Global Affairs Canada, amongst other past experience.
Power was previously an issues management adviser in the office under Wilkinson—having been hired this past September—and tackled communications for Wilkinson’s successful re-election campaign in North Vancouver–Capilano, B.C., this past spring.
As previously reported, Eamonn McGuinty is chief of staff to Hodgson.
Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson has also named a director of policy for her office, at least for the interim.
Kurtis Layden, who was most recently director of policy to Guilbeault as then-environment minister, is set to lead policy work in Thompson’s office until the end of this summer.
Layden previously spent close to a year as policy director to then-fisheries and oceans minister Joyce Murray between the end of 2022 and early fall of 2023. A past assistant to then-Liberal MPs Matt DeCourcey and John Aldag, Layden landed his first cabinet-level job in early 2019 when he was hired as an Atlantic adviser and assistant to the parliamentary secretary to then-environment minister Catherine McKenna. He stayed with the office through to the end of 2022, becoming a parliamentary affairs and policy adviser after Wilkinson took over as environment minister following the 2019 election, and later senior policy after Guilbeault took it over following the 2021 election. When he returned to the environment office in 2023, Layden was initially hired as a senior policy adviser; he was promoted first to director of climate and energy policy last year.
Andrew Richardson is set to continue as director of issues management and parliamentary affairs to the fisheries minister, a role he’d filled under then-fisheries and oceans minister Diane Lebouthillier since following the minister to the portfolio in the summer of 2023.
Richardson previously worked for Lebouthillier as then-national revenue minister, starting in early 2020 as an issues manager and assistant to the parliamentary secretary. He was promoted to senior adviser for issues management and parliamentary affairs roughly a year later, and then director of parliamentary affairs a few months after that.
Richardson is also a former manager of political insights and strategy with National Public Relations.
Also confirmed on Thompson’s team is senior adviser Morgan McCullough.
McCullough started his Hill career as an assistant to British Columbia Liberal MP Patrick Weiler in 2016—he recently once again helped Weiler get re-elected this past spring—and got his first ministerial gig in July 2021 when he was hired as a policy and Pacific regional adviser to then-fisheries and oceans minister Bernadette Jordan.
Not long after the July 2023 shuffle that saw B.C. Liberal MP Terry Beech added to cabinet, McCullough left the fisheries office to become director of operations to Beech as then-citizens’ services minister. McCullough left Beech’s office this past October and joined then-innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne’s team—his most recent post.
As reported, Neil MacIsaac is chief of staff to Thompson.
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