Brian Guest

Brian Guest is a Canadian political advisor associated with the Liberal Party of Canada.

Guest was born in Ottawa. He began working in Politics in 1994 when he joined Association House working for Richard Mahoney. At the time Mahoney was the President of the Ontario Liberal Party. After Mahoney left Association House, Guest took over his client work fully.

In 1997 Guest assisted with Bob Chiarelli's successful campaign against incumbent Peter Clark for Ottawa regional chair. Guest then spent five years as Director of Communications and Policy in Chiarelli's office with specific responsibility for delivering the light rail pilot project. Guest left Chairelli shortly after he was elected the first Mayor of the new single City of Ottawa.

In 2001 Guest went to work for then Finance Minister Paul Martin, replacing Scott Reid as the communications director. When Martin parted ways with the Chrétien government Guest ran communications for Martin's campaign for the Liberal party leadership, and he was one of Martin's main advisors. Guest coordinated the Martin campaign's sometimes difficult relations with the national press corp at a time when the media began to openly lament the ten year hold on power enjoyed by the Liberal Party of Canada.

When Martin became Prime Minister Guest was given an important position in the Prime Minister's Office, as deputy principal secretary. He was also put in charge of the government's cities policy and relations with the municipalities. He resigned, however, in March 2005 setting up the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity, a non-profit think tank focusing on the environment.

After Martin's resignation in 2006 he was initially co-chair of John Godfrey's leadership bid. When Godfrey dropped out due to health reasons, Guest moved to Stéphane Dion's camp.

In late 2006, Guest was unable to work on Bob Chiarelli's campaign in bid for re-election as Mayor as it coincided with the Liberal Leadership contest. Mr. Dion won that leadership contest and now is Leader of the Opposition.

References

*"The Inner Circle" Mark Kennedy. "Edmonton Journal." Edmonton: Jul 6, 2003. pg. D.5