With Marc-André Blanchard now fully installed as chief of staff to Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, long-awaited news of finalized staffing decisions is beginning to trickle out.
Blanchard, whose hiring was first announced at the beginning of June, started in the top job earlier this month, and is being supported by two deputy chiefs of staff: Andrée-Lyne Hallé and Braeden Caley.
Hallé and Caley were both co-campaign directors for the recent national Liberal campaign alongside fellow co-director Andrew Bevan and executive campaign director Tom Pitfield.
As part of her campaign role, Hallé, who until recently had been working off of the Hill since 2022, had also offered Quebec advice. Hallé previously worked in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office from 2015 to 2022, minus a year—the uneventful year that was 2020—spent as deputy chief of staff and director of operations to then-deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland.
Starting out as press secretary to Trudeau in 2015, Hallé worked her way up to deputy director of communications, then director of outreach. After returning from her stint working for Freeland, Hallé took on the title of director of issues management before being named a strategic adviser to the PM at the start of 2022. She left the Hill that fall and has spent the last roughly two years working for Alstom in Quebec, most recently as director of Quebec public affairs, media relations, and communications. Hallé is also a former Quebec Liberal staffer.
Prior to this year’s general election campaign, Caley ran Carney’s successful Liberal leadership campaign. A former senior director of communications for the Liberal Party from 2016 to 2022, up until this past January, Caley had been president and CEO of Canada 2020.
Caley is a past assistant to then-British Columbia Liberal MPs Raymond Chan and Ujjal Dosanjh, and is a former aide to then-Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who is now minister of housing and infrastructure and the MP for Vancouver Fraserview–South Burnaby, B.C. Caley started out as a press secretary in Robertson’s office as mayor in 2011, and exited in 2016 as director of policy and communications.
As already reported in this paper, former justice minister David Lametti joined Carney’s PMO as principal secretary as of July 14.
Lametti represented the riding of LaSalle–Émard–Verdun, Que., in the House from 2015 until his resignation in February 2024, and served as federal justice minister from January 2019 until a July 2023 cabinet shuffle that saw Lametti unexpectedly dropped from the front bench. A former McGill University law professor, Lametti joined Fasken in Montreal soon after his resignation last year, but has exited as counsel there to join Carney’s office.
Currently sharing a title with Lametti is Pitfield, who continues as a principal secretary in the top office, as he’s been since Carney’s early transition into the PM’s seat.
Prior to his role advising Carney this year, Pitfield was busy as CEO and Founder of Data Sciences, a firm that’s done work for the federal Liberal Party. A longtime friend of Trudeau’s, Pitfield tackled digital operations for the Liberals during the 2021, 2019, and 2015 elections, and is husband to Quebec Liberal MP Anna Gainey, a former party president. Among other things, Pitfield is also a former chairman and co-founder of Canada 2020.
Tim Krupa is director of policy to Carney. He’s understood to have been penning policy for the PM for months, from Carney’s leadership campaign, to his first transition into 80 Wellington St., the general election, and beyond.
Krupa previously worked on the Hill between 2014 and 2017, starting as a special assistant for outreach and operations in Trudeau’s office as then-third party Liberal leader, and continuing as a special assistant for policy in Trudeau’s PMO after the Liberals formed government in 2015. Krupa went on to work as an investment associate with Bridgewater associates, and more recently as an economist with Goldman Sachs.
Supporting Krupa are two deputy directors of policy who both served as cabinet chiefs of staff during the previous Parliament: Shaili Patel and Katharine Heus. Both are understood to have worked on policy during the recent campaign.
Patel was previously chief of staff to then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister Gary Anandasangaree. Prior to taking the helm of his office in 2023, Patel was director of policy to Carolyn Bennett during both Bennett’s time as then-mental health and addictions minister, and as Crown-Indigenous relations minister before that. Patel is also a former longtime aide to then-Saskatchewan Senator Lillian Eva Dyck.
For her part, Heus is an ex-chief of staff to then-Indigenous services minister Patty Hajdu. Heus started with the Indigenous services file back in 2019, first as an operations director to then-Indigenous services minister Seamus O’Regan. She was kept on as a policy director after Liberal MP Marc Miller took over the portfolio following the 2019 election. Hajdu took over the file following the subsequent, 2021 election, and soon after promoted Heus to chief of staff. Heus is also a former legislative assistant to then-veterans affairs minister Kent Hehr, and a past senior policy adviser to O’Regan as then-veterans minister.
Prior to coming to the Hill to work for the Trudeau government, Heus was most recently a research program co-ordinator with the Pamoja Tunaweza Health and Research Centre in Tanzania. She’s also a former project manager with Toronto East General Hospital, among other past jobs.
Speaking of ex-chiefs of staff, Lisa Jørgensen, who previously ran the offices of then-public safety minister David McGuinty and then-justice minister Arif Virani, is now director of global affairs in Carney’s PMO.
A former criminal and regulatory lawyer most recently practicing with the then-named firm Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe Barristers, in Toronto, Jørgensen has been working on the Hill since 2020, beginning as a policy adviser to Lametti as then-justice minister. Jørgensen was promoted to director of policy to Lametti after the 2021 election, and became chief of staff to Virani after he was shuffled into the justice portfolio in July 2023.
Jørgensen has been working for Carney since he took over as Liberal leader in March, and until earlier this month, had been working under the title of senior adviser to the PM on Canada-United States relations. In her new role, she’s leading global affairs work in Carney’s office, including Canada-U.S. relations, trade, national security, and defence, as noted on her LinkedIn profile. She’s also a past litigation associate with McCarthy Tétrault, and an ex-associate with Lockyer Campbell Posner, among other things.
Working closely with Jørgensen is Scott Gilmore as senior adviser for foreign affairs, defence, and security policy. Gilmore has been advising Carney since the early months of this year. In a LinkedIn post on his decision to join Carney’s first PMO transition team, Gilmore wrote that while he was “initially hesitant to go back into government,” there are “few people” he respects more than Carney. “I have been hoping for well over a decade that he would enter politics,” said Gilmore, noting he had agreed, “at least during the initial period,” to take on the role of senior adviser. Some five months later, Gilmore remains in place.
Gilmore spent the last 12 years as president of Anchor Chain, an advisory and management services firm, and between 2014 and 2022 was also editor-at-large of Maclean’s Magazine. Gilmore worked as a diplomat with Global Affairs Canada from 1996 to 2004, with postings in Indonesia and Afghanistan, and as deputy director for South Asia, over which time he also spent roughly a year as a deputy national security adviser for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor. Among other things, Gilmore is also a past governor of the International Development Research Centre.
Also currently working as a senior adviser in Carney’s PMO is Alexandre Boulé, who was previously chief of staff to then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly.
Boulé started in Joly’s office in July 2023 as a deputy chief of staff, and was promoted to lead the office outright in last fall. Before then, Boulé had been director of regional affairs to then-Quebec lieutenant Pablo Rodriguez. He’s also a former policy adviser to then-foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau, and a former tour advance to Trudeau.
Outside of federal politics, Boulé has worked as a senior adviser for media relations and public affairs for CN Rail, as an adviser to then-Quebec municipal affairs minister Martin Coiteux, and as an associate with McCarthy Tétrault.
Angad Dhillon is once again in 80 Wellington, this time as director of operations to Carney. Dhillon first worked in the office as an Ontario regional affairs adviser between 2018 and 2021, and has since been director of operations and later chief of staff to then-transport minister Omar Alghabra, and more recently chief of staff to then-small business minister Rechie Valdez.
A former field organizer for the federal party, Dhillon has been working on the Hill since the end of 2015, beginning as a special assistant for operations and outreach in the Liberal research bureau (LRB). He’s since also been a special assistant for policy to Joly as then-heritage minister, and director of outreach in the LRB.
Mike Maka is director of tour and strategic planning. Maka confirmed his official hiring on LinkedIn earlier this month, but he’s been supporting Team Carney for a number of months, including as a deputy campaign manager responsible for tour organization during the recent federal election.
Maka is another former cabinet chief of staff; in his case, he most recently ran the office of then-international development minister Ahmed Hussen. Maka is also a past chief to then-immigration minister Sean Fraser, to Alghabra as then-transport minister, and to Hussen as then-families minister.
A longtime political staffer, Maka’s CV includes years spent working at Queen’s Park, including as an assistant to then-Liberal MPPs Alghabra and Laurel Broten, and to the province’s government services and municipal and housing affairs ministers. Maka worked as an adviser in Trudeau’s office as Liberal opposition leader for a little more than a year leading into the 2015 election, after which Maka joined the PMO as a communications officer, working there until early 2018 when he exited as senior communications planning manager. Maka has since also been director of communications and strategic planning to Jean-Yves Duclos as then-families minister.
Overseeing communications for Carney is director Jane Deeks, who was a deputy campaign manager for digital communications during this year’s election, and similarly led digital strategy work on Carney’s successful leadership campaign. Deeks is a carryover from the former Trudeau PMO, having been director of digital strategy there since April 2024. Before then, Deeks was director of communications to O’Regan as then-labour and seniors minister.
A former assistant to Bennett as the then-MP for Toronto-St. Paul’s, Ont., Deeks’ first ministerial job came in 2018 when she was hired as press secretary to Bennett as then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister. Deeks has since also been press secretary and later communications director to then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan, and director of communications to then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough.
Finally, rounding out the list of senior staff currently at work at 80 Wellington is Sylvie Peterson, who is manager of the PM’s executive office. Peterson is a longtime aide to Carney, and previously filled a similar role while working for him at Brookfield Asset Management.
Stay tuned to Hill Climbers for more staffing updates.
The Hill Times