Who Am I?

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.