Hill Climbers
Identifying the 20-plus members in Culture Minister Guilbeault’s office
Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault, who’s also the minister responsible for official languages, has a 23-member team of staffers working full-time in his office.
Former PMO director Hilary Leftick’s hiring as Guilbeault’s chief of staff was among the first post-election cabinet hirings reported by Hill Climbers in May. Climbers has since also reported on Alisson Lévesque’s hiring as director of communications to Guilbeault, and Marie Froggatt’s addition to the office.
Originally hired as executive assistant to the minister, Froggatt now wears the title of senior operations adviser.
Guilbeault has a separate—smaller—team supporting him in his capacity as Quebec lieutenant, led by chief of staff Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, but with 20 staffers in the culture office still to cover, that rundown will have to wait for another day.
Brian MacKay has been hired as deputy chief of staff and director of policy to Guilbeault.
MacKay has been working for successive Canadian heritage ministers—the previous longstanding name for Guilbeault’s current portfolio—since 2020, starting as an Ontario regional affairs adviser during Guilbeault’s previous turn in the post.
MacKay became a senior policy adviser after now-Quebec Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez took over as heritage minister after the 2021 election, and by 2023, under then-minister Pascale St-Onge, MacKay was serving as director of policy and stakeholder outreach—his most recent title. He’s also a former operations and Ontario regional affairs adviser to then-science and sport minister Kirsty Duncan, and a past assistant to Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz and then-Ontario Liberal MPP Ann Hoggarth.
Dominic Morin has taken on the dual role of head of appointments and senior policy adviser to the minister. Morin has been working alongside MacKay in the heritage office since 2023, having first been hired as a policy adviser to then-minister St-Onge in the fall of that year. Morin holds bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees in philosophy, according to his LinkedIn profile, with his PhD coming from the École normale supérieure – PSL, in Paris. Morin first landed on the Hill right as he was wrapping up his PhD in 2022, and first worked as a Quebec regional affairs adviser to then-public services and procurement minister Helena Jaczek.
Also currently tackling policy for Guilbeault are senior policy advisers Darren Choi and Madison Taipalus, and policy advisers Connor Fisher and Tao Fei.
Choi stepped in as acting policy director then-diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities minister Kamal Khera at the start of this year, and had been working for Khera since 2023, beginning as a special assistant for West and North regional affairs in her office as then-seniors minister. Choi followed Khera to the diversity portfolio after the July 2023 cabinet shuffle, becoming a policy and West and North regional adviser. Prior to working for Khera, Choi had most recently worked as a policy research assistant with the University of Alberta’s China Institute. He also previously interned in then-Alberta Liberal MP Amarjeet Sohi’s office over the summer of 2019, among other past experience.
Taipalus is a former assistant to now-House Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia and has been working for Liberal ministers since 2018, beginning as a special assistant for West and North regional affairs to then-public services minister Carla Qualtrough and continuing under Qualtrough’s portfolio predecessor, now-Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. Taipalus has since also been an Atlantic regional adviser to then-women and gender equality minister Marci Ien, and joined the heritage office as a policy adviser to then-minister St-Onge in the fall of 2023.
Fisher has been working on the heritage file since March 2024 when he was hired as an Ontario regional adviser to then-minister St-Onge. Before then, he’d been an issues manager and senior special assistant for parliamentary affairs to then-labour and seniors minister Seamus O’Regan. Between 2021 and 2023, Fisher worked for then-seniors ministers Deb Schulte and Khera, starting as a special assistant for Atlantic regional affairs to Schulte, whom Fisher had previously supported as the MP for King–Vaughan, Ont.
Fei is new to the Hill and was last busy as a strategic initiatives producer for 221A, a non-profit in Vancouver focused on working with “artists and designers to research and develop social, cultural and ecological infrastructure,” as described on its website. Fei’s LinkedIn profile notes she’s also a former manager of public funding and artist relations, and later executive producer, for the music festival POP Montreal, among other things.
Senior parliamentary affairs assistant Daniel Krebs is another carryover from St-Onge’s team, which he joined in the fall of 2023 as a legislative assistant. Before then, Krebs was assistant to the parliamentary secretary in St-Onge’s office as then-sport minister. He’s also an ex-aide to now-Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden as the MP for Milton, Ont. (now Burlington North–Milton West, Ont.).
Leading the official languages file for Guilbeault is director Luke Guimond. He was last busy as director of parliamentary affairs to then-official languages minister Rachel Bendayan.
A former assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather and Ontario Liberal MPP Lucille Collard, Guimond landed his first cabinet-level job in the fall of 2023 when he was hired as a legislative assistant to then-employment minister Randy Boissonnault. Guimond was later promoted to parliamentary affairs adviser and issues manager to Boissonnault, and stayed on after Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor took over as employment, workforce development, and official languages minister in November 2024.
Vanessa Cranston is director of parliamentary affairs. Though missed by Hill Climbers at the time, Cranston first stepped into the role under then-minister St-Onge at the end of 2024, and before then had done the same for then-rural economic development minister Gudie Hutchings. A former communications officer with the office of the registrar at the Supreme Court of Canada, since landing on the Hill in 2016 Cranston has also worked as an assistant to New Brunswick Liberal MP Serge Cormier, and as manager of parliamentary affairs to then-immigration minister Sean Fraser.
Likewise focused on legislation is Mathieu Lebon–Volia, who’s both a legislative assistant and assistant to Liberal MP Madeleine Chenette as one of two parliamentary secretaries to Guilbeault. He’s a former assistant to then-Alberta MP Randy Boissonnault, and after the April 28 election, briefly worked for Boissonnault’s riding successor, now-Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski, in her capacity as the new MP for Edmonton Centre, Alta. Lebon–Volia has also previously interned with the International Organization of La Francophonie as a Young Francophone Ambassador, amongst other past experience.
Sara Korajian Rankin is director of operations to Guilbeault. She’s been working for federal heritage ministers since 2018, starting as a policy adviser to then-minister Rodriguez, and is a former special assistant for West and North regional affairs in the Liberal research bureau (LRB), and a past assistant to British Columbia Liberal MP Hedy Fry.
Working closely with Korajian Rankin are senior operations adviser Jerica Mariano; operations adviser Samantha Carter, who covers Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba regional affairs; and operations adviser Anika Riopel, who also tackles Atlantic regional affairs and serves as assistant to Liberal MP David Myles, the second of Guilbeault’s two parliamentary secretaries. As well, Sarah Hall is currently on board as an operations and communications intern.
Mariano most recently worked at Liberal Party headquarters as an outreach adviser for a couple of months leading up to the April 28 general election and before then spent roughly three years working in the LRB, starting as an outreach, diversity, and inclusion adviser and executive assistant to the managing director, and ending as manager of outreach, diversity, and inclusion. She’s also a former executive assistant in the offices of then-families ministers Ahmed Hussen and Karina Gould, and a former riding assistant to Hussen as the MP for York South–Weston, Ont.
Another new face on the Hill, Carter graduated from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in inorganic chemistry last year, and has since been working as a sales associate at The Bike Shop in Calgary.
Riopel has spent the last eight years working for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, last as an education co-ordinator for the centre’s Kelp Kurious project.
Also covering regional desks for Guilbeault are Kaitlyn Jonescu, senior regional adviser for Ontario, and Tinsae Bogale, who was recently hired as B.C. regional adviser.
Jonescu first joined the heritage team under St-Onge in October 2023 as a special assistant for operations. She’s a former executive assistant to O’Regan as then-labour minister, and previously spent the summer of 2022 as an intern to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford.
Working under communications director Lévesque are press secretary Hermine Landry and lead creative media adviser Justin Millar.
A former Hill guide, Landry was first hired as press secretary to Guilbeault in October 2024, during his time as then-environment minister, and spent the recent federal election helping write communications for the national Liberal campaign.
Millar previously held the same title in Fraser’s office as then-housing minister, and according to his LinkedIn profile, he also did the same for Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland’s Liberal leadership campaign at the start of this year. A freelance photographer and drone pilot, Millar is also a past editor at Carpe Diem Photography.
Michael Sauvé is issues manager to Guilbeault. New to the Hill, Sauvé was most recently director of public affairs and communications with the Quebec Community Groups Network, and principal consultant and founder of The Whole Hundred. His online CV includes a six-month run as a program lead with Data Sciences (of which current PMO principal secretary Tom Pitfield is a former CEO, and which has done work for the Liberal Party), and time spent as a senior account director with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, and as director of digital and social with North Strategic.
Finally, Radi Shahrouri is executive assistant to Leftick as chief of staff.
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