The Conservatives and New Democrats will head into the next election campaign with most of the same top staffers in charge, but the Liberals will have a whole new team.

Tories say Jenni Byrne, the party's new director of political operations, is expected to be named campaign director while newly-minted Conservative Senator Doug Finley, who ran the party's last two election campaigns, will most likely play an advisory role because he's on the public payroll.

"These people ran the campaign only a year ago. I wouldn't expect too much change," a top Conservative source referring to the October 2008 election team told The Hill Times last week

Meanwhile, Patrick Muttart, former deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), is also expected to work on the next election campaign along with Guy Giorno, chief of staff to the Prime Minister; Ray Novak, principal secretary to the Prime Minister; John Williamson, newly-appointed director of communications to the Prime Minister; Dimitri Soudas, chief spokesman for the Prime Minister; Dave Penner, director of appointments; Jay Dorey, senior adviser to the chief of staff; Jason Plotz, senior adviser in the PMO issues management shop; Paul Wilson, director of policy to the Prime Minister; and Jasmine Igneski, director issues management.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.) is expected again to be a key campaign player as he was in the last two elections. Mr. Kenney will likely work out of the Tory campaign headquarters located at 2713 Lancaster Rd. in Ottawa. Mark Spiro, a senior Conservative who in the past campaigns was in charge of target seat management, is returning to the same role.

On the Liberal side, veteran party insider Gordon Ashworth, who was the party's campaign director in the last election, will step into the same role this time, while Don Guy, who was expected to move to Ottawa for the duration of the campaign to serve as a senior campaign aide, will not be part of the Liberal campaign for family reasons. Mr. Ashworth also served as campaign director in the 1993, 1997 and 2000 majority election victories.

Other key Liberal players will be: Ian Davey, chief of staff to the leader; Dan Brock; principal secretary; Rocco Rossi, national party director; Sachin Aggarwal, deputy chief of staff; Kevin Bosch, director Liberal Research Bureau; Jill Fairbrother, director of communications; Leslie Church, senior strategic communications aide to the leader; Daniel Lauzon, director of communications to the Liberal Party headquarters; Jean-François Del Torchio, press secretary; Michael O'Shaughnessy, press secretary; policy advisers to the leader Jeremy Broadhurst and Michael McNair; Olivier Bouffard, executive assistant; Jim Pimblett, legislative assistant; Adam Goldenberg, speech writer to the leader; senior advisers Alexis Levine and Mark Sakamoto.

Warren Kinsella, a former senior Liberal Cabinet staffer who played a key role in the 1993, 1997 and 2000 federal election campaigns, will head the war room, but will work as a campaign volunteer. Pollster Michael Marzolini will serve as the official pollster for the Party.

Liberal Party campaign headquarters will be located at 81 Metcalfe St. in downtown Ottawa.

On the NDP side, NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto-Danforth, Ont.) has appointed his party's national director as the new campaign director replacing Brian Topp who headed the party's last two election campaigns and led the war room in the 2004 election campaign.

Mr. Topp told The Hill Times last week that after the last federal election, he had informed the leader he won't be able to serve as campaign director in the next election.

"I've spent almost 11 months living in hotels in Ottawa over the past five years—a fair bit of time away from my day job, for a volunteer. Therefore, shortly after the last campaign I asked the party to look for another candidate for the job. Very wisely, our team picked Brad Lavigne, our party's national director. I have worked closely with Brad in all of this campaign work and know he will do a great job," Mr. Topp said who confirmed that he will still remain involved as a senior adviser from Toronto.

A top NDP source told The Hill Times that most of the senior staffers who worked in the last election campaign will work in the next one as well.

"Most of the senior team will be returning, absolutely," a senior NDP source told The Hill Times.

Some of the other NDP senior staffers expected to play key roles are: Anne McGrath, chief of staff; Rick Boychuk, director of strategic communications; Peter Puxley, director of policy and research; Karl Bélanger, deputy director of communications and senior press secretary; Ira Dubinsky, deputy director of strategic communications; Nathan Rotman, director of organization; and Nammi Poorooshasb, director of communications in the NDP headquarters.

Although the next election campaign has not started yet, the parties started to launch attacks and counter attacks last week.

Prime Minister Harper said last week that in the next election, Canadians will have a choice between his party and the Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc. But the Liberal leader last week rejected any possibility of forming a coalition after the next election.

"The Liberal Party will not agree to form a coalition," Mr. Ignatieff said on Parliament Hill last week. "We do not support a coalition today or tomorrow."

Also, last week, the federal Liberals released a recording of the Prime Minister's closed-door speech in Northern Ontario to the CBC in which he talked about the possibility of a majority government saying the alternative is a "Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists." Since the 2004 federal election, the Harper Conservatives have been reluctant to talk about the possibility of forming a majority government believing that the talk of a majority government denied them winning the 2004 election.

In the speech, Mr. Harper criticized the previous Liberal governments for subsidizing court challenges by "left-wing fringe groups" and added that if the Liberals had been in power, they would have been putting more "left-wing ideologues" into the court system.

After the Prime Minister's speech became public, Mr. Ignatieff said: "There have always been two Harpers—the real Harper always comes out when he thinks he can't be heard," said Mr. Ignatieff.

In talking points sent to MPs, staffers and candidates, Liberals accused Mr. Harper of having a "hidden agenda."

"Behind closed doors, Stephen Harper says that judges are 'left wing ideologues.' He calls women who want equality 'left-wing fringe groups.' And he says he wants to 'get rid of' gun control. We'll stop accusing the Reform Conservatives of having a hidden agenda when they stop talking about it behind closed doors," read the talking points sent to Liberals.

Tim Powers, a Conservative strategist, told The Hill Times that his party is not worried about how the Liberals are using the Prime Minister's speech to try to score political points.

"My initial reaction is who cares, in the sense that one: the issue of the coalition that's brought forward in the tape was put on the table by Mr. Ignatieff, Mr. Duceppe and Mr. Layton. So, it's not surprising at a partisan rally to hear the Prime Minister speaking to it. It's not surprising to hear a political leader trying to motivate his troops, you don't try to de-motivate your troops," said Mr. Powers.

"You always encourage them to do better and I would say this—a lot to do about nothing if the Liberals are trying to use this as their rallying cry. They're in difficult straits because over the course of the last three elections, every time they've tried to suggest that there's some form of hidden agenda, they've progressively done worse. So, go for it Liberal Party of Canada if you think that's the way to go," said Mr. Powers.

Parliament is returning this week and the Liberals recently pledged to put forward a non-confidence motion at the first available opportunity and the Liberals will get their first opportunity on Sept. 30 or Oct. 1.

Theoretically speaking, the next election could be triggered as early as this week if the Tories introduced a "ways-and-means" motion to implement some aspects of last January's budget, including the popular home renovation tax credit. The Bloc Québécois, however, has said that it won't vote against the government on this issue.

Given the current configuration of the House, the three opposition parties will all have to vote against the government to defeat the Conservative government.

arana@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times