A dive into Public Safety, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Democratic Institutions Minister LeBlanc’s 28-member office

Juggling three portfolios, Public Safety, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc has a large ministerial team supporting him, with 28 staff in all, including Brandan Rowe, who is now deputy chief of staff to the minister. Brandan Rowe is deputy chief of staff to Minister LeBlanc. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Rowe was previously director of policy to LeBlanc when he was minister for both intergovernmental affairs and infrastructure. An aide to LeBlanc since 2018, Rowe started out as a policy adviser in LeBlanc’s office as then-minister for intergovernmental affairs, northern affairs, and internal trade. LeBlanc was shuffled into the role of intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president after the 2019 election and Rowe followed, later getting promoted to senior policy adviser, then to senior adviser for policy and communications, and finally director of strategic planning in 2021. After LeBlanc was made minister for infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs following that year’s election, Rowe was named director of policy for the latter portfolio; he took charge of policy for the infrastructure file, as well, earlier this year. Rowe is also a former assistant to now-Justice Minister Arif Virani in his role as the MP for Parkdale-High Park, Ont., and from 2016 to 2018 worked for the federal immigration minister, starting as assistant to the parliamentary secretary (Virani, at the time) under then-minister John McCallum, and ending as special assistant for Atlantic regional affairs to then-minister Ahmed Hussen. As previously reported, Jamie Innes is chief of staff to LeBlanc as minister for democratic institutions and intergovernmental affairs, while Cory Pike is chief of staff for public safety. Innes is supported by executive assistant Shawna Dittburner, while Shannon Ablett does the same for Pike. Dittburner is a former aide to Ralph Goodale as both a Liberal MP and later as then-public safety minister, and is an ex-assistant to Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull; she was previously executive assistant to Innes, and office manager for LeBlanc as infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs minister. Ablett was previously office manager and executive assistant to Pike as then-chief of staff to then-public services and procurement minister Helena Jaczek, and is also a former aide to Turnbull. Chris Rodgers is director of policy for democratic institutions. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn LeBlanc has three directors of policy in his office, and one deputy director. Chris Rodgers continues to oversee policy work related to the democratic institutions file, while Rebecca Parkinson now runs the intergovernmental affairs policy shop, and Maja Kostic has been named director of policy for the public safety file, supported by Mary-Liz Power as deputy director. A former policy adviser with Public Safety Canada, Rodgers began working for LeBlanc after the 2019 federal election, starting as director of policy in his office as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. He’s been running policy for the democratic institutions file specifically since 2022. Rodgers is a former two-time Liberal candidate, having run against now-Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Carleton, Ont., in both the 2015 and 2019 federal elections. Rebecca Parkinson is director of policy for intergovernmental affairs. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Parkinson has been working for LeBlanc through his various portfolios since the end of 2020, starting as a senior adviser for the Prairies and North in his office as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. She most recently held the title of deputy director of regional affairs to LeBlanc. A former executive assistant to then-Manitoba Liberal MP Jim Carr, Parkinson worked in the ministers’ regional office in Winnipeg between 2017 and 2020. Kostic has previously worked for the Treasury Board Secretariat, and for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Up until last month, Power had been busy as a senior policy adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. A former Ontario Liberal staffer at Queen’s Park, Power landed on the Hill at the start of 2020 as press secretary to then-public safety and emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair. From 2021 until the start of this year—when she joined Joly’s office—Power worked in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, starting as an issues adviser, and ending as issues management and parliamentary affairs adviser. Kristina Slodki with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Working under these directors are: senior policy adviser Kristina Slodki, who’s focused on the democratic institutions file; senior policy advisers Jessica Fullerton and Nathan Bessner, who both tackle intergovernmental affairs; and Miro Froehlich, senior regional adviser for Quebec, and policy adviser for public safety and intergovernmental affairs. Slodki joined LeBlanc’s office in September straight from the PMO, where she’d been a policy co-ordinator since 2022. She previously spent two years working for then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough, starting in March 2020 as an executive assistant and scheduler. Jessica Fullerton is a senior policy adviser for intergovernmental affairs. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn A former special assistant for research in the Liberal research bureau, Fullerton has been working for LeBlanc since the end of 2021, starting as a policy adviser for intergovernmental affairs in his office as infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs minister. She was promoted to “senior” status this past June. Bessner returned to LeBlanc’s employ (under his current title) this past winter, after exiting as a policy and Ontario regional affairs adviser to LeBlanc as then-infrastructure and intergovernmental minister in September 2022 to start studying for a master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He’s also a former parliamentary and policy adviser to then-infrastructure minister Catherine McKenna, an ex-special assistant to then-innovation minister Navdeep Bains, a past senior special assistant for operations to then-immigration minister Marco Mendicino, and a former assistant to Mendicino as the MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont. Froehlich worked as a Quebec regional affairs adviser to Mendicino as public safety minister prior to the July 26 cabinet shuffle. He joined Mendicino’s office in 2022, and previously did the same for then-health minister Patty Hajdu. Froehlich is also a former assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Angelo Iacono. Rob Jamieson is a senior adviser for the public safety file. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Rob Jamieson is a senior adviser to LeBlanc as public safety minister. He previously did the same for Mendicino as then-public safety minister starting in February 2022 after two years as a senior adviser to the government House leader (starting under now-Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez and continuing under now-Health Minister Mark Holland). Jamieson was previously chief of staff to now-government House leader Karina Gould and Maryam Monsef during their turns as minister for democratic institutions. Wallace McLean is a senior adviser for research to LeBlanc. A former legislative assistant and policy adviser to Lawrence MacAulay during his first turn as agriculture minister, and an ex-issues manager to Gould as then-democratic institutions minister, McLean has been working for LeBlanc since the start of the 43rd Parliament, most recently under the title of senior adviser for issues management. Alex Axiotis-Perez is director of operations. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Alex Axiotis-Perez is director of operations to LeBlanc, a role she’s held since January of this year after roughly three years working in Trudeau’s PMO. She started in the PMO as executive assistant to chief of staff Katie Telford in 2020, and ended as an advance staffer—in between, she spent roughly a year as a PMO policy adviser. Axiotis-Perez previously worked for LeBlanc in 2019 as a scheduling assistant in his office as then-intergovernmental affairs, northern affairs, and internal trade minister. Monica Stella Jaillet is a special assistant for operations; she’s been a special assistant to LeBlanc since 2020, starting during his time as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. Nina Plummer covers the Prairies and North regional desks. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Annina Plummer is a regional affairs adviser for the Prairies and North. She was hired to cover the Ontario and Prairies regional desks for Mendicino as then-public safety minister shortly before the July shuffle after a little over a year as executive assistant to the chief of staff to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. Prior to being hired to Joly’s office in the spring of 2022, Plummer had been an English-language assistant with the Fleuve-et-des-Lacs School Board in Quebec, among other past roles. Gabriel Broderick covers the Ontario desk. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Gabriel Broderick covers the Ontario regional desk for LeBlanc, as he has done since 2022 for then-public safety minister Mendicino prior to this summer's shuffle. Broderick is also a former special assistant for Ontario regional affairs to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland; an ex-constituency assistant to Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont., Liberal MP John McKay; and a former program assistant with the Royal Ontario Museum, among other things. Ayesha Khaira is a regional affairs adviser for British Columbia. Khaira has been working for LeBlanc since the start of 2022, originally hired as a policy and Western and Northern regional affairs adviser in his office as then-infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs minister. She previously covered the West and North regional desks for then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough, and is an ex-constituency assistant to now-Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech as the MP for Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C. Émilie Simard continues as director of parliamentary affairs to LeBlanc. She joined LeBlanc’s office this past May as both head of parliamentary affairs and of issues management, having previously done the same for the federal immigration minister. Simard joined the immigration office as an issues manager under then-minister Mendicino after the 2019 election, and was promoted to director under then-minister Sean Fraser. She’s also a former press secretary to then-rural economic development minister Bernadette Jordan, and an ex-special assistant for Ontario and Quebec regional affairs and assistant to the parliamentary secretary to then-veterans affairs minister Kent Hehr. Ashton Ross is a legislative assistant. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Working under Simard are parliamentary affairs adviser Conor Lewis and legislative assistant Ashton Ross. Lewis is a former aide to Mendicino as public safety minister, having been hired as assistant to the minister’s parliamentary secretary—at the time, Liberal MP Pam Damoff in 2022; before then, he’d been an assistant to Damoff as the MP for Oakville North-Burlington, Ont. Ross is a former aide to Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell, and has been working for LeBlanc since early 2022, previously as Ontario regional affairs adviser and assistant to O’Connell as then-parliamentary secretary to LeBlanc. Caroline Williams is director of issues management. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn Caroline Williams is now director of issues management to LeBlanc. A former parliamentary assistant at the Scottish Parliament, Williams first landed on the Hill in 2018 as assistant to Liberal MP Ruby Sahota. In October 2020, she was hired as a special assistant for parliamentary affairs to Joly as then-economic development and official languages minister, and less than a year later, Williams joined Blair’s office as then-public safety and emergency preparedness minister, starting as an issues and parliamentary affairs adviser. After the 2021 post-election cabinet shuffle that saw Blair made Privy Council president and emergency preparedness minister, Williams was promoted to director of parliamentary affairs—her most recent role. Kelly Ouimet remains director of communications to LeBlanc, as she’s been since late 2020, starting during LeBlanc’s time as minister for intergovernmental affairs and president of the Privy Council, after more than a decade working in the private sector. Ouimet was previously communications director to then-Liberal social development minister Tony Ianno, and is a former special assistant to communications to then-finance minister Paul Martin. She’s also a past director of government relations for the Forest Products Association of Canada, and an ex-senior media relations specialist for the Canadian Council on Learning. Jean-Sébastian Comeau continues as press secretary and senior communications adviser. He’s been working for LeBlanc since May 2021, starting as press secretary and communications adviser to LeBlanc as intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. Before then, Comeau was working for the federal agriculture minister, starting under MacAulay (who now once again holds the portfolio) as a special assistant and ending as press secretary to then-minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. He’s also a former media monitor with Global Affairs Canada. Ève Loignon-Giroux is now a communications adviser to LeBlanc. She previously interned in his office as then-intergovernmental affairs minister and Privy Council president. Finally, Ariane Mallet is now a communications assistant to LeBlanc. A part-time aide to LeBlanc as then-infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs minister since the summer of 2022, she was hired as a full-time intern this past summer, shortly before the July cabinet shuffle. lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Hill Climbers

A dive into Public Safety, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Democratic Institutions Minister LeBlanc’s 28-member office

Dominic LeBlanc’s office includes three directors of policy—one for each of his cabinet portfolios—and one deputy director for public safety.

To keep reading, subscribe and become a political insider.

Only $7.76 a week for an annual subscription.

Get Hill Life & People Newsletter

More News

In-Depth Features