Hill Climbers
Two more ministers, two secs of state lock in chief of staff picks
Rookie International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu has made some key staffing appointments for his new office, including hiring Kevin Lemkay as chief of staff.
It’s Lemkay’s first time heading a ministerial office. He recently served as an Ottawa-based spokesperson for the Liberal campaign during the federal election, and was previously director of communications to then-rural economic development minister Gudie Hutchings since September 2023.
Lemkay has been working in the federal political sphere since the 2015 election.
He spent his first roughly two years as a constituency assistant to Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant before moving to Ottawra in the fall of 2017 to join the Liberal research bureau as a special assistant for Ontario. Lemkay landed his first ministerial gig about a year later when he was hired as a communications and Ontario regional affairs adviser to then-border security and organized crime reduction minister Bill Blair.
Lemkay went on to spend the greater half of 2020 as press secretary to then-immigration minister Marco Mendicino, who’s currently wrapping up his tenure as PMO chief of staff. Lemkay later worked as an issues adviser in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office for about a year-and-a-half until the 2021 election, after which he became director of communications to then-fisheries minister Joyce Murray. He’s since also been communications lead for then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough.
Sarah Manney has been hired as director of policy to Sidhu.
Though her name is new to these pages, it’s technically a promotion for Manney, who was originally hired on as a senior policy adviser focused on Canada-U.S. trade and Indo-Pacific affairs by then-trade minister Mary Ng back in January. According to her LinkedIn profile, Manney also spent roughly six months working as a policy adviser to then-foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau in 2021.
Prior to joining the trade team, Manney spent the summer of 2024 working as an associate with the law firm WilmerHale in New York. She’s also a former business analyst and later acting engagement manager with McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C. Her online profile indicates she holds a bachelor’s degree in political science—with a minor in Russian language and literature—from Stanford University, a master’s in public policy from the University of Cambridge, and a doctor of law from Stanford.
Also so far confirmed in Sidhu’s office is ministerial driver Spencer Knight.
Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali has named Elliott Lockington as his chief of staff.
Lockington has been running cabinet offices since the 2021 election, having first been named to the role by then-tourism and associate finance minister Randy Boissonnault. Lockington went on to lead Boissonnault’s office as then-employment minister, and stayed on as chief of staff to Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor during her brief turn overseeing the employment portfolio late last year.
During the recent Liberal leadership race, Lockington managed Liberal MP Karina Gould’s campaign.
A former field organizer with the federal party, Lockington has been working for ministers since early 2016, starting out as a special assistant to then-heritage minister Mélanie Joly, who promoted him to director of parliamentary affairs at the end of 2017. Lockington continued in that role under Joly’s portfolio successor Pablo Rodriguez through to the 2019 election, after which he was hired to lead parliamentary affairs for then-public services minister Anita Anand, who he worked for through the entirety of the 43rd Parliament.
Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai has tapped Hursh Jaswal to lead his new office.
Jaswal was previously deputy chief of staff and director of outreach to then-international development minister Ahmed Hussen, but has a good deal of experience running cabinet offices outright.
A former special assistant to then-immigration minister John McCallum, Jaswal stayed with the portfolio after Hussen took it over in 2017, becoming communications manager, then director of communications, and finally director of operations to Hussen as immigration minister. Jaswal followed Hussen to the families, children, and social development portfolio after the 2019 election, initially continuing as operations director before becoming chief of staff there in 2021. Hussen was named housing, diversity, and inclusion minister after that year’s election, and subsequently brought Jaswal along to continue running his office.
Jaswal became deputy chief of staff and outreach director to Hussen after the minister was shuffled into the international development portfolio in July 2023.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr has found a chief of staff with procurement-related experience to run his office: Mary-Rose Brown.
Brown took on the chief of staff title for the first time this past fall when she was promoted to run then-public services and procurement minister Jean-Yves Duclos’ office, having previously been his director of policy since September 2023.
Brown began working for the former Trudeau government in early 2016, starting out as a policy adviser to then-public services and procurement minister Judy Foote. Brown stepped away from the Hill between 2017 and 2020—during which time she worked as a manager with TD Bank—before returning as a senior policy adviser to then-finance minister Bill Morneau in early 2020. Brown continued as a senior policy adviser after now-Transport and Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland took over the finance portfolio that August; Brown worked there through to 2023, when she joined Duclos’ team.
Brown’s experience on the Hill pre-dates the Trudeau government: she’s also a former assistant to then-Liberal MP Ken Dryden. Among other things, Brown is also a past research associate with the Public Policy Forum, and a former Innoweave program manager for the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.
Along with Brown, Mujtaba Hussain has been hired as press secretary to Fuhr.
Hussain previously worked under Brown as a digital communications adviser to Duclos as then-public services minister, having joined that team this past September after roughly a year as a parliamentary assistant to British Columbia Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson. He’s also a former intern to B.C. Liberal MP Ron McKinnon.
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