Onex executive Nigel Wright becomes Harper’s chief of staff

Stephen Harper has tapped a Bay Street dealmaker, Nigel Wright, as his new chief of staff, signaling he wants his government to refocus its efforts on the economy.

Mr. Wright, in his mid-40s, is a managing director of Onex Corp., and is considered a bit of a star on Bay St. A lawyer with degrees from Harvard and the University of Toronto, Mr. Wright has previous government experience, having worked in the Mulroney PMO as a speech writer and policy advisor.

Mr. Harper’s office had wanted to wait until Monday to announce Mr. Wright was replacing Guy Giorno for the post, but the rumours began leaking out Thursday night. Conservative Party president John Walsh confirmed the appointment Friday.

“This is a huge coup for the Conservative government,” he said. “I think Nigel is one of the brightest and best Canada has to offer and it signals a clear indication that the government is focused on the economy and making sure Canada remains at the head of the pack worldwide.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/onex-executive-nigel-wright-becomes-harpers-chief-of-staff/article1723251/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=190x29879

It really means big corporations have an even bigger mouthpiece in power, imo. A former policy advisor to Mulroney, that says it all. Mulroney's economic policies almost bankrupted Canada so I guess we know where we are going to end up again with harper.

23 year old speech writer for Mulroney I don't think he had much influence on Mulroney's policy.

However, he does come from Mulroney's camp. It may mean Flaherty and Clements are moving back wards and McKay is moving forward.

Today on Power & Politica it was stated that the present advisor took the job on a two year basis. That would mean that Harper has been looking for someone for some time.

Try connecting the dots with Amazon and the CRTC.

Things have to appear to be above board to be above board.

that does not mean he isn't a fan of the same kind of economic policies that devastated Canada during Mulroney's time. I strongly suspect he does. I am not sure what your reference to Amazon and the CRTC means, could you clarify or, even better, spell it out please.

Is a company. The wife of the Onex head guy is the head of Chapters.

All of the independent booksellers were against Amazon being able to set up here. Except Chapters.

Chapters also support Harper's position on the middle east.

There seems to be a lot of similar positions between Onex and Harper.

I agree re lots of similar positions between Onex and Harper. Another interesting connection is that Onex and Canwest were both started by Gerry Schwartz and we know on which political side Canwest is on.

Here's an interesting tidbit about Onex I found:

Onex is involved in the American health care industry, owning a number of firms there.

Gee, I am sure it is just coincidence that the harper cabal has long wanted to privatize health care and now harper's right hand man just happens to be a bigwig from Onex. Huh, shocker eh!