I have been interested in politics for as long as I can remember.
Growing up in rural
western New Brunswick, we had three television channels; two of which
were American. I watched the CBS evening news with Dan Rather almost
every night, with its much more youth-friendly time slot than CBC's
The National. One of my earliest memories was bragging to my father
that I knew the identity of both the president and vice-president of
the United States. His response was to ask me who was the prime
minister of Canada. I was embarrassed that I had no idea and soon
remedied that!
Other early
political memories include watching the 1990 Liberal leadership
convention on rabbit ears with my grandfather; on New Year's Eve,
1990-91, celebrating the privilege of being allowed to stay up as
late as I wanted by choosing to watch the Edmonton news at 1 a.m. (by
then we had 12 channels, including Edmonton's CITV) to see the
reaction to the GST taking effect in sales-tax-free Alberta, my
mother hounding her boyfriend to vote in the 1992 Charlottetown
referendum, and so forth. Another memory was flying from Montreal to
St-Leonard as an unaccompanied minor and sitting next to my local MP
and federal cabinet minister Bernard Valcourt and chatting about
federal politics the whole time.
My interest in
politics transcends borders and I closely follow politics all over
the world. I find it as interesting and enjoyable as sports are to
many. It is a source of great pride for me that many who know me rely
on me as a virtual encyclopedia of political trivia, and I enjoying
sharing random facts with others to encourage discussion and
awareness of politics and public policy.
My first direct
involvement in politics was during the 1995 provincial election at
the age of 14, when I put up signs for a close friend's father who
was the local CoR candidate. (In hindsight, I don't care much for
their politics, but in fairness, Kevin was running for them mostly
because he had been unsuccessful in seeking the PC nomination.) In
1998, Wes McLean, my classmate, future MLA and current deputy chief of staff to
Blaine Higgs, recruited me to join the PC Party of Canada to support
Joe Clark for leader, a man I still admire. That same year, I helped
my stepmother get elected to village council with the most votes
entitling her to the position of deputy mayor.
At my ideological
core I am likely a "Red Tory", but as Red Toryism is mostly
dead in Canada federally and in New Brunswick, I gradually drifted to
the Liberals. A key turning point for me was Bernard Lord's decision
to accept shadow tolls (where all New Brunswick share the toll costs
equally, including for non-New Brunswick motorists) as an alternative
to consumer tolls (where the user pays). I remained a federal Tory
however, and volunteered on a local campaign in 2000, casting my
first ever vote for the PC Party of Canada. By coincidence, a hall
mate in university was the son of Liberal MLA Eric Allaby, and my
regular anti-Bernard Lord rants resulted in an introduction to
provincial Liberal politics where I soon became active and was
elected to the Young Liberal executive.
My preference would
be to be a non-partisan political strategist for hire, but given that
trust and loyalty are the main currencies in our politics
“partying-hopping” is not a legitimate option for someone who
wants to work in politics. So it was that I gradually drifted to
involvement with the federal Liberals as well, more of necessity than
desire. With the eventual folding of the PCs into the Canadian
Alliance, however, I likely would have ended up there anyway.
I admire and tend to
root for for underdogs, and as such have a long history of backing
worthy but losing candidates in leadership races, including Allan
Rock and Sheila Copps, Paul Duffie, and Gerard Kennedy.
This blog got its
start in 2006 while I was living in Ottawa. Unable to work on the
snap election in New Brunswick that fall, I decided to become
involved by writing about it. I wrote anonymously largely because
many political bloggers popping up at that time were anonymous and it
seemed a good way to be able to comment completely honestly on the
campaigns of friends and acquaintances without feeling the need to
temper my comments to protect the feelings of others.
In 2008, I moved
back to New Brunswick to take a non-partisan position in the civil
service, with plans to leave the practice politics behind so as to
provide a secure income and start a family. Instead I became the
youngest communications director (28) and youngest chief of staff
(33) to a New Brunswick premier. Whoops!
When I was asked to
join Shawn Graham's office in 2009, the Liberals were ahead in the
polls, the NB Power sale had not yet been announced publicly (nor
privately to me), and New Brunswick had not had a one-term government
in modern times. Nonetheless, I entered the office on secondment
until prior to the set election date, with a plan to return to the
civil service, which I did.
My political
activity lapsed out of necessity as my return to the civil service
under a new PC government was decidedly unpleasant. After being
shuffled around to less and less meaningful roles, I was finally
given the option to "voluntarily" accept a demotion and pay
cut, or lose my job. With financial security for my family firmly in
mind, I chose the former and did my best to keep my nose clean. I
blogged (and tweeted) often to satisfy my interest in politics, but
that became risky, as some of those who had figured out my identity
threatened to "out" me if they didn't like my writings.
This included a well-known journalist who took offense to me saying
he was being unfair to PC cabinet ministers!
The blog never
really recovered from that period, and I largely took a pass on the
2012 provincial and 2013 federal leaderships. I did vote, of course,
and keeping with my stellar record, supported losing candidates (rather
than Gallant or Trudeau) in both contests.
I have remained
semi-active on Twitter, but in keeping with my long-standing practice
of not commenting anonymously on political jurisdictions in which I'm
on the payroll of a politician, I focused my attention mostly on
international politics from 2009-10 and 2015-18.
Politics makes for
strange bedfellows, or so goes the idiom. Having opposed both Shawn
Graham and Brian Gallant for Liberal leader, both gave me the biggest
jobs I have ever had in politics (although not right away)!
In the case of
Gallant, there were a series of "right place at the right time"
events. My wife and I had our second child in May 2014, and I had
long planned to take parental leave. The timing of this leave aligned
with the upcoming provincial election campaign. Although, I had no
political relationship with Gallant, two former political associates
asked me to help with the Liberal platform; this led to my authorship
thereof. I also convinced one of Gallant's inner circle of the merit
of a transition plan, and was mandated to quietly write one after
completing the platform. This led to a staff position supporting the
transition team, then to one leading the strategic program review
which I had conceived as part of the platform process and laid the
groundwork for in the transition process. Despite this, Gallant and I
had not grown close, and I was far from the inner circle.
However, by summer
2015, the government had been in power for eight months and still did
not have a permanent chief of staff. I was consulted and offered
numerous names. My name was floated once and I retorted "I don't
think the 32-year-old premier needs a 33-year-old chief of staff!"
However, with many other more seasoned names having been passed over
or having declined the job, I was asked if my name could be put
forward. I agreed, though with little expectation of success. I was
cruising the Mactaquac head pond for a friend's bachelor party when I
got a call to come in to meet the premier, and had to be taken ashore
to do so!
Thereafter, Gallant
and I became close political associates out of necessity and similar
work styles. I have always believed that the number one quality in a
chief of staff is to have good chemistry with the political
principal, and worked hard to ensure that was so. I told him in order
to be effective, I would need the privilege to enter his office,
close the door and offer my frank opinion on any matter at any time.
In return, I would leave his office and implement his decision
whether or not I agreed, and no one would ever know my view, as my
job was to implement his. He agreed with this arrangement, and I
accepted the job. The three years that followed were some of the
toughest and most rewarding of my career.
Now having been
closest to the centre of provincial politics as possible, I am back
on the outside, still with lots of interest and opinions and little
outlet for them. So here I am, resurrecting this blog. I have no
political agenda, but am pulling back the curtain for others to judge
for themselves. My name is Jordan O'Brien, and I am nbpolitico.
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