In a note sent to MLAs and staff today, Clark’s chief of staff, Ken Boessenkool announced the move. The note reads as follows:
It is my pleasure to announce that Sara MacIntyre will join the Office of the Premier as Director of Communications effective March 6th.On Friday, MacIntyre confimed the announcement on her FaceBook page:
Most recently, Sara served as Press Secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Some of you may recall her days in Victoria as the B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
As part of the office restructuring, Shane Mills will assume the role of Director of Issues Management in the Office of the Premier.
I am confident these changes will allow us to continue delivering the government’s agenda as we focus on strengthening British Columbia’s economy and strengthening B.C. families.
Excited to be joining Premier Clark’s team and heading back to the best province in the country! Looking forward to new challenges, opportunities and keeping BC moving forward.The announcement comes just days after the arrival of Boessenkool, who himself has strong ties to Harper.
MacIntyre resigned from Harper’s staff on February 10, and had her going away party in Ottawa Thursday night. Rumours had suggested that MacIntyre was either coming to B.C., or going to Alberta to work for Tom Flanagan and the Wildrose Alliance on the Alberta election campaign.
On Thursday, Clark’s staff announced the firing of Chris Olsen as Clark’s press secretary. I’m told Clark will not hire a new press secretary, and that MacIntyre will handle the media.
New Democratic Party MLA Shane Simpson labelled the various moves as acts of “political desperation”.
“It is just political desperation as they spend more taxpayer dollars trying to figure out how to end this political downward spiral that the premier is in,” he said, adding he doesn’t think any of it is going to work.
“Even though they’ve got very hardline partisans now running her office — in MacIntyre and Boessenkool – I don’t think it’s enough to turn this around,” he added.
“I think people have had their fill of the Liberals as a party, and Ms. Clark and all the spin doctors in the world aren’t going to convince British Columbians that this is a different government than the one that was there a year ago.”
The B.C. Liberal Party has also retained Don Guy, the so-called “Godfather of Queen’s Park”, to help them with their election planning.
The best description I’ve seen of him is by the Toronto Star’s Linda Diebel: “Don Guy is a political strategist who speaks softly, is seldom seen and carries the political world’s equivalent of a shoulder-fired missile,” she wrote in a great profile piece.
Guy has led Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to three election wins, including the most recent where McGuinty came from behind in the polls to form a minority government.
Guy makes sense because he can help the Liberals — who have been in power for three terms – craft strategy to come from behind. He is also a Liberal who can help balance out the Harper Conservatives that Clark is bringing on staff.
I’m told Guy will not work for Clark directly, but instead will only provide advice to the party on forming an election strategy.
He will not have an official title with the campaign, I’m told, and is doing everything on a volunteer basis.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Jonathan Fowlie
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