Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden has found a chief of staff to lead his office in Lauren Hadaller.

Hadaller spent the last roughly two years working for then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly, but also brings experience from the year and a half she spent working for then-sport minister Pascale St-Onge, among other past roles. 

A former assistant to British Columbia Liberal MP Ron McKinnon, Hadaller has been working for Liberal ministers since the fall of 2020, beginning as a policy adviser to Joly as then-economic development and official languages minister. 

After the 2021 election—which Hadaller spent overseeing McKinnon’s successful re-election campaign in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, B.C.—she was hired as a policy and Ontario regional adviser to St-Onge as then-minister for sport and the Economic Development for Quebec Regions agency. Hadaller was promoted to senior adviser to St-Onge in early 2023, but a few months later exited to join Joly’s foreign affairs team as deputy director of parliamentary affairs and issues management. 

In August 2024, Hadaller was promoted to director of parliamentary affairs and issues management to Joly—her most recent post. According to her LinkedIn profile, she spent this year’s election as the federal Liberal Party’s Get Out the Vote director in B.C. 

Now chief of staff to van Koeverden, this marks Hadaller’s first time leading a ministerial office.

An Ontario MP since 2019, van Koeverden is a cabinet rookie, but has held a number of parliamentary secretary roles over the years, including to the ministers for environment and climate change, sport, health, and diversity and inclusion and youth.

Including Hadaller, that makes 31 confirmed cabinet chiefs of staff who have been reported in these pages to date, including Marc-André Blanchard, the incoming chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Five of those 31 chiefs of staff are running secretary of state offices. Aside from Hadaller, they are: Maria Morley, chief of staff to Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger; Alex Jagric, chief of staff to Secretary of State for Children and Youth Anna Gainey; Kevin Collins, chief of staff to Secretary of State for the Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions Wayne Long; and Noémie Fiset-Tremblay, chief of staff to Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli. 

Of Carney’s 28-member roster of ministers, Hill Climbers is still awaiting official word of who will be chief of staff to four ministers: Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Joly as industry minister, and International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu. 

That said, while it’s not yet official, Hill Climbers understands Taras Zalusky is expected to be named as chief of staff to Anand. Zalusky previously ran Anand’s office as then-defence minister, but stay tuned for an official update on where he’s landed. 

If you’ve crunched the numbers and are left wondering: the other 25 chiefs include two chiefs of staff for Steven Guilbeault, one—Hilary Leftick—for his office as Canadian identity and culture minister, and another—Ann-Clara Vaillancourt—for his office as Quebec lieutenant. 

lryckewaert@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

 

Laura Ryckewaert has been a reporter with The Hill Times since 2011 and a deputy editor since 2019. Originally from Toronto, she’s been living in the national capital since 2007 and is a graduate of Carleton University’s bachelor of journalism program. She tackles the Hill Climbers column for the paper, which follows political staffing changes on Parliament Hill, and, among other things, regularly covers the Procedure and House Affairs Committee, the Board of Internal Economy, and Parliamentary Precinct renovations. See all stories BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT