Liberals tap new research bureau head this Parliament

There’s been plenty of movement in the Liberal research bureau since the start of the 44th Parliament, where Linda Campbell has taken over as managing director. Melissa Cotton, who’d run the caucus research office for the last five years as managing director, left the Hill in January and is now a senior manager of government affairs at CN Rail, as previously reported. Campbell first joined the LRB in June 2021 to take over as director of caucus services and operations. Before then, she’d spent a year and a half as director of operations and outreach to then-heritage minister Steven Guilbeault. Campbell is also a former policy and regional affairs adviser for the West and North to then-small business and export promotion minister Mary Ng and to then-small business and tourism minister Bardish Chagger, and a former legislative assistant to now-Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray as the Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra, B.C. Phil Ricard is director of caucus services and operations. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Phil Ricard has replaced her as director of caucus services and operations. He’s been in the LRB since September 2020, previously as a regional adviser for Quebec, as noted on his LinkedIn profile. Ricard is also a former aide to then-Quebec Liberal MP Frank Baylis. Working under him as manager of caucus services is Dylan Bissonnette. A former assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, Bissonnette was previously a training and policy adviser in the LRB, where he’s been since 2017. Wesley-Ryan Boyd, a former policy and B.C. regional affairs adviser to then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister Carolyn Bennett, joined the LRB in January as West and North regional affairs adviser. He’s also a former assistant to P.E.I. Liberal MP Bobby Morrissey. Tina Derak is one of two Ontario regional advisers currently in the LRB. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Covering Ontario regional affairs are Braeden Cain and Tina Derak. Cain is a recent addition to the office, while Derak has been in place since May 2021, starting shortly after graduating from Queen’s University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government. Nesrine Grine is on the Quebec desk in the LRB; she interned in the office last summer, focused on caucus services and operations. Plus, Leon Yu is Atlantic regional affairs adviser. He joined the office in December and was previously a page in the House of Commons during the 2018-19 program. Yu graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Ottawa last year. Also working under Ricard are special assistants for operations Nick Penner and Lauren Sander. Patrick Weeks is the LRB's director of strategic research. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Patrick Weeks continues as director of strategic research, a role he’s held since the summer of 2020. Weeks is also a former assistant to P.E.I. MP Morrissey; he first joined the LRB in 2017 as a special assistant and has since also been manager of strategic research. Three researchers are in place in the bureau: Mitchell Goldie, Matthew Kirkeby, and Mark Dottori. A former assistant to Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser, Goldie got his start on the Hill as an assistant to Families Minister Karina Gould as the Liberal MP for Burlington, Ont., in the fall of 2016. He went on to work as a special assistant for parliamentary affairs in Gould’s office as then-democratic institutions minister starting in April 2017, but returned to her MP office after roughly half a year. After taking leave to work on Fraser’s successful re-election campaign in the spring of 2018, Goldie joined the LRB as a communications assistant in June 2018. Kirkeby marks his one-year anniversary of working in the LRB this month and is a former platforms support agent with Data Sciences. Tristan Lamonica is director of digital strategy and analytics. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Tristan Lamonica is now the LRB’s director of digital strategy and analytics, having been bumped up from “manager” to “director” last September. Lamonica first joined the LRB to tackle communications and analytics on a part-time basis in the spring of 2017, and became a full-time digital strategy, informatics, and analytics adviser a year later. He was part of the 2019 national Liberal campaign’s digital team and was lead for special projects for the Grit campaign last fall. Maya Ouferhat is an adviser for digital strategy and analytics; she first came to the LRB as a summer intern through the Liberal Party’s summer leadership program and was hired on full time in October. Also part of the team under Lamonica is digital strategy adviser Sara Kasum. Ian Perkins remains steadfast as the LRB’s director of parliamentary affairs, a role he’s filled for the last six-and-a-half years. A veteran staffer, he began working on the Hill in the late 1980s and his past roles include as an aide to then-Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis and a senior adviser to then-veterans affairs minister Albina Guarnieri. Thomas Ianni works under Perkins as a special assistant for parliamentary affairs. Ianni joined the LRB in December and is a former disability payment specialist with Sun Life in Montreal. In 2020, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Concordia University. Robert Zhu took over as director of outreach, diversity, and inclusion in the research bureau last month, three years after he first joined the team as a special assistant for outreach. Zhu has since held the title of outreach adviser and manager of outreach. He oversees a crew of five special assistants: Jordan Chou, Claire Grenier, Callum Haney, Riya Khanna, and Samira Levesque. Samira Levesque is a special assistant for outreach, diversity, and inclusion. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Haney joined the LRB in November 2021, after spending the election as part of now-Women and Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien’s successful re-election campaign in Toronto Centre, Ont. He’s also a former research assistant and communications projects officer with York University. Khanna is a former constituency assistant to Liberal MP Randeep Sarai in Surrey Centre, B.C., and previously interned in the LRB over the summer of 2021, focused on South Asian and Muslim outreach. Levesque, another former Liberal summer leadership program intern, previously supported the Liberal Black caucus as a student researcher, helping with its consultations ahead of the 2021 federal budget, according to her LinkedIn profile. Plus, Jerica Mariano is both executive assistant to Campbell as managing director and an adviser for outreach, diversity, and inclusion. She arrived in the LRB in March, after a little more than a year in the families minister’s office, starting under then-minister Ahmed Hussen and continuing under current minister Gould, as executive assistant to both the minister and chief of staff. Mariano is also a former constituency assistant to Hussen as the MP for York–South Weston, Ont. Donna Popovic is director of programs and learning. The LRB organizes a range of training and learning sessions for MP staff. Popovic, a former parliamentary affairs adviser and assistant to the parliamentary secretary to then-science minister Kirsty Duncan, joined the research bureau in 2017 as an outreach program manager. She’s also an ex-Queen’s Park staffer, including to then-Ontario Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur during her time as both community safety and correctional services minister and as attorney general. LRB communications director Cole Davidson. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Cole Davidson continues as director of communications in the bureau, a role he first stepped into in June 2021. A former special assistant for digital media and social media co-ordinator in then-Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne’s office, Davidson first came to the Hill in 2015 as an assistant to Liberal MP Bryan May. From September 2017 until the start of 2020, he was a communications adviser in the LRB, and before returning last June, spent a year and a half as press secretary to then-health minister Patty Hajdu. Braeson Holland is back in the LRB. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Braeson Holland returned to the LRB in March. He’d exited after almost two years as a senior adviser for communications and media relations in November 2021 to work as a digital media producer to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. Holland, who’s the son of Government House Leader Mark Holland, is also a former press secretary to then-women and gender equality minister Maryam Monsef, assistant to the late Liberal MP Arnold Chan, and assistant to then-Ontario government and consumer services minister Tracy MacCharles. During the 2019 campaign, Holland was a digital content producer for the Liberals, and last fall, was a video editor for the national Liberal campaign. Hunter Hill, who first landed in the LRB as a graphic designer at the start of 2020, was promoted to senior adviser for communications this past January. He’s a former creative design and art director with Banfield Agency in Ottawa, among other past roles. Aren Daghlian was hired as a new communications adviser in January. He was most recently a communications adviser to then-diversity, inclusion, and youth minister Chagger and is also a former assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury. Aiman Akmal is a special assistant for communications. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Lindsay Chamaillard and Aiman Akmal are special assistants for communications. Chamaillard has been in the LRB since February 2020. Akmal was hired on in January and is a former constituency assistant to Etobicoke Centre, Ont., Liberal MP Yvan Baker; an ex-parliamentary guide; and was the 2021 Equal Voice Daughters of the Vote delegate for Burlington, Ont. Rouba Wehbe is the LRB’s manager of compliance and general counsel. A lawyer with the Quebec Bar, she previously articled at Noël & Associés, Avocats. Wehbe studied law at the University of Ottawa. Former PMO human resources adviser Trish Renaud supports both the LRB and Chief Government Whip Steven MacKinnon's office as an HR adviser, and Anne Carty is office manager. Altogether, that’s 36 staff in the research bureau. The LRB’s budget, like the research bureaus of other recognized parties in the House, comes from Parliament; for 2022-23, its budget totals $3,238,690. lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Liberals tap new research bureau head this Parliament

Plus, Patrick Weeks is director of strategic research in the caucus support office, and Tristan Lamonica is now director of digital strategy and analytics.

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