I didn’t spend a lot of time talking to people inside the various campaigns in the recent election, because my fellow observers are more relaxed during a campaign than practitioners. After the vote, though, practitioners get to relax and assess their efforts. I caught three of them in that mood the day after the federal election.
Andrew Bevan has been national campaign director for the Liberals since Thanksgiving, which means he had to prepare campaign plans for Justin Trudeau, for some unknown hypothetical leader, and for Mark Carney in quick succession. He used to be Stéphane Dion’s chief of staff, and Kathleen Wynne’s, and Chrystia Freeland’s, so he knows politics has its ups and downs. He gave me an excellent briefing on the various stages of his hectic year. Among other intriguing revelations, he said he thought the Poilievre campaign was right to run on change, not Donald Trump. The effect was of two campaigns talking past each other, but only because each campaign was chasing different voters concerned about different things.
Scott Aitchison is the newly re-elected Conservative MP for Parry Sound — Muskoka, a former Conservative leadership candidate. Turns out I’m one of a few journalists who thought of Aitchison when I asked myself the question, “Who’s actually going to talk without asking permission?” So he was on the circuit yesterday. He had thoughts on the state of the campaign, the likely state of Parliament in the months ahead, and the state of his party’s leadership — he thinks Pierre Poilievre should keep it.
Gerald Butts has a wildly outsized reputation as Justin Trudeau’s Svengali, so it was interesting to see him involved in Mark Carney’s leadership campaign and in the Liberals’ national campaign. I had my own questions about exactly what his role was, so I thought I’d ask him. Butts talked a fair bit about the nature of the change Liberals, and Carney, need to deliver.
With that, I’m done covering the election via the podcast, and the podcast itself will take at least a brief pause. It’s been a long campaign. I’ll be back with more episodes soon.
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You can read a (machine-generated) transcript of this week’s episode via the "Transcript” button at the top of this page when you view it on your desktop browser. As we learned from Campaign Week 3’s cross-platform Transcript button search, which was actually a thing (and thanks to everyone who took part!), it can be tricky if you’re reading on your phone or a tablet. But on your desktop browser, you should be able to find this post at this URL, and the Transcript button should be reasonably discoverable.
I am grateful to be the Max Bell Foundation Senior Fellow at McGill University, the principal patron of this podcast. Antica Productions turns these interviews into a podcast every week. Kevin Breit wrote and performed the theme music. Andy Milne plays it on piano at the end of each episode. Thanks to all of them and to you. Please tell your friends to subscribe to The Paul Wells Show on their favourite podcast app, or here on the newsletter.
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