Provincial Liberals appoint Miller to lead 2017 election campaign
B.C.’s governing Liberal party has appointed Laura Miller to lead its 2017 election campaign.
Miller is currently the party’s executive director, and was handpicked by Premier Christy Clark to revitalize the Liberal’s campaigning, organizing and fundraising after the 2013 election.
She’ll succeed Mike McDonald, a longtime Clark loyalist and organizer who directed the party’s 2013 election war room.
Miller is also former deputy chief of staff to former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, and one of two staffers facing criminal charges in Ontario related to that province’s gas plant scandal. She’s set to go to trial in Ontario in September 2017 — four months after the B.C. election concludes.
Clark has defended Miller and said she’s innocent until proven otherwise. The NDP has used Mill- er’s charges as part of continued attacks on the ethics of the Liberal government.
The B.C. NDP have not yet picked a campaign director, though leader John Horgan recently hired Manitoba union official Bob Dewar to become his new chief of staff and Dewar is expected to play a key role in the party’s election planning.
The B.C. Green Party has appointed Taylor Hartrick as its campaign manager. Hartrick formerly worked in leader Andrew Weaver’s office.