A legendary Liberal in his own right, Yanover retires

After serving for 37 years on the Hill as a top Liberal Hill staffer, the legendary Jerry Yanover, a long-time Liberal House procedural guru, has retired but is still volunteering for the Liberal House Leader's Office providing advice on the often arcane world of Parliamentary procedures and practices. Mr. Yanover, 59, told Hill Climbers that he hasn't formulated any long-term future plans but is planning on advising the Liberal House Leader's Office as a volunteer up until the Liberals elect a new leader in December. "I'm easing my way into real retirement," said Mr. Yanover when asked why he decided to volunteer for the House Leader's Office after his retirement. After the last federal election in which Paul Martin's Liberals lost to the Conservatives, Mr. Yanover was one of the three members of the Liberal transition team along with William Charnetski and Eugene Lang to set up the OLO for interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham. These days, he's spending a few hours almost every day on Parliament Hill, making himself available to the House Leader's Office to discuss any issues that they may need his advice on. For the rest of the day, he's "just getting going, trying a little bit of this, a little bit of that." In his 37 years on the Hill, Mr. Yanover served with 12 House leaders starting with Donald Macdonald and ending with Tony Valeri in a full-time position. Over the years, Mr. Yanover worked in a number of positions in the Liberal House Leader's Office, including as special adviser, communications assistant and chief of staff. His last job title under Mr. Valeri was Parliamentary counsellor. Mr. Yanover said that of the 12 House leaders he worked for, he learned the most from the once wily Liberal House leader and master of Parliamentary practice Allan MacEachen. He worked for Mr. MacEachen for eight years. "Given the fact that I worked for him for eight years and also I was very young when I started. I started working for him when I was 23 years old, so I had a lot to learn although I didn't think so at the time," he said. In the last Parliament, Mr. Yanover, the pipe-smoking Parliamentary rules expert, played a key role in keeping the fragile Liberal minority government afloat for close to 17 months. Another long-time Grit Hill staffer, Richard Wackid, executive assistant to Liberal Whip Karen Redman, said although he and Mr. Yanover worked under often intense political conditions and had numerous disagreements, that it never affected their friendship. "I am very pleased to say that it is great that Jerry has decided to volunteer his time for the team. Having access to such a pool of knowledge and experience is great. Jerry is a true gentleman. I consider myself lucky to have worked closely with him for 20 years. It is his work ethic that I appreciate and admire most," Mr. Wackid wrote in an email. A native of Kingston, Ont., Mr. Yanover earned his bachelor's in political science from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., in 1968. He first came to the Hill in the mid-1960s in his summer holidays as a tour guide and later as an intern in then president of Treasury Board E.J. Benson's office. He started to work full-time in 1969 as a political aide to Mr. Macdonald, then the government House leader and for the next 37 years stayed with the Liberal House Leader's Office. Poulin moves to Queen's Park Former Liberal ministerial Hill staffer Valérie Poulin is moving to Queen's Park to work as director of communications to Ontario Education Minister Sandra Pupatello. Ms. Poulin, who is the daughter of Liberal Senator Marie-P. Poulin, is starting her new job on June 5. A native of Ottawa, Ms. Poulin, 28, earned her BA in communications from the University of Ottawa in 1999. She first came to the Hill in 1999 to work as a special assistant in then government House leader Don Boudria's ministerial office where she assisted Kim Thalheimer, the minister's Ontario assistant at that time and Sophie Cormier who was Atlantic Canada assistant at the time. In the 2000 federal election campaign, Ms. Poulin worked in the Liberal Party's War Room in Ottawa as a media monitor. After Ms. Thalheimer departed for a job in the PCO in 2001, Ms. Cormier took over the responsibilities as Ontario assistant and Ms. Poulin was promoted to the position of Western Canadian assistant. She stayed in that position until December 2001 and then joined Andy Mitchell's office as director of communications. Mr. Mitchell was then secretary of state for Rural Development and the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario. After the Cabinet shuffle in January 2002, Ms. Poulin was offered a position at then minister of international cooperation Susan Whelan's office as a legislative assistant which she accepted and when Hilary Humphrey, then director of communications to Ms. Whelan left in September 2002, to work at CIDA, Ms. Poulin assumed the responsibilities of communications assistant too. Ms. Poulin left Ms. Whelan's office in March 2003 to work for the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). In November 2004, she returned to the Hill to work for Joe McGuire, then minister of ACOA where she worked until last February. Arana@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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