Christy's First HarperCon-Op...Credit Where Credit Is Due...

TurningBackTheClock

ToDayOneVille

On the weekend, following up on a post by Dave at the Galloping Beaver, NVG and I identified a HarperCon Operative who went to work Christy much earlier than the newly-arrived Glimmer Twins (ie. Mr. Boessenkool & Ms. McIntyre)....

But, it turns out that a former Director of Communications for Stephen Harper's PMO, Ms. Nina Chiarelli, who started working for the BC Liberal Government in July of 2011 was not the first to arrive.

Instead, that distinction may belong to very fine fellow named Dmitri Pantazopoulos as Alison made clear over at Creekside early Monday morning:

...Dimitri Pantazopoulos became Christie Clark's principal secretary on April 4, 2011, in charge of "Long-term policy and priorities and Intergovernmental Relations" after doing polling and voter tracking for her BC Liberal leadership race.

A former Reform Party policy advisor, he was introduced to Clark four months earlier by another Reform Party policy advisor and Harper strategist Ken Boessenkool, who quit as Clark's campaign manager after Steve asked senior members from the national Con campaign team to "refrain from taking formal positions in the B.C. leadership race".

Boessenkool, a former Enbridge lobbyist, eventually joined Clark's team as her chief of staff last month (in February of 2012)...

Apr 4th, 2011.

Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Because that was just three weeks after Ms. Clark was sworn in as the (not)Premier and more than a full month BEFORE she (barely) won the Pt. Grey by-election.

Which certainly does nothing to dispel our hypothesis that a deal was made by the fine folks riding the (not)Premier and other assorted sundry horses to go all in with the HarperCons from the very beginning....

Anyway.

To get back to that 'giving of credit-where-credit-is-due' business...

It turns out that one Lotuslandian proMedia reporter had this one nailed to the wall way back in the day.

And its a guy's who's name we have been calling a lot lately, Mr. Jonathan Fowlie of the VSun, who also noted some other of the good Mr. Pantazopoulos longstanding, and extremely reform-minded, uber-conservative bonafides, one of which appears to have been garnered outside this particular country:

...Premier Christy Clark has bolstered the Conservative credentials of her innermost circle, hiring a veteran Tory strategist and pollster to help direct her government's long-term vision, and ready it for an election...

Ottawa native Dimitri Pantazopoulos has been a pollster of record for both the Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties, has worked for a well-connected polling firm in Washington, D.C., and, in the early 1990s, helped prepare policies for the Reform Party alongside Stephen Harper and Preston Manning...

As of April 4, Pantazopoulos will become Clark's principal secretary -a senior post reporting directly to the chief of staff -working out of her office in Victoria...

Oh.

And the date under Mr. Fowlie's byline for that particular piece?

Mar. 17th, 2011.

Just three DAYS after Ms. Clark was sworn-in as (not)Premier.

OK?

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Of course, Sean Holman had the goods on the good Mr. P's contract just a little while later....

So...If an 'all-in' with the HarperCons was made, say, in late 2010...Who would have brokered it?....Don't know for sure, but the Anon-O-Mice sure are chattering...What's that they're saying?....What?...Rhymes with 'javelin'?....Field events?...Not my cup of tea...Unless, of course it comes en...errrrr....'in' a can....

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