The Sixth Estate

Update: Mr. Lietaer’s own Twitter account, as I write this, contains no reference to his position in the Harper war room. In fact, he implies he doesn’t have one, saying “no title here, just keeping my head down, ” before spewing out the typical B.S. about coalitions. I guess he forgot to mention his anonymous status to colleague Guy Giorno, who outed his position as head of the “media relations team.”

It’s day zero of the election campaign, and the Conservative Party is already not just hiring, but celebrating the arrival of paid lobbyist shills in its election war room. Today Guy Giorno, using Twitter, welcomed the new head of the media relations team, Jason Lietaer. Lietaer is one of what I expect to be a number of political operatives active during the campaign who sell their politics for cash to the highest bidder.

Lietaer currently works at Ensight Canada. Previously he did a stint working for the Conservative causus research unit. Before that, he was at Ensight Canada again, where his clients ranged from the World Wildlife Fund to the tobacco industry. Lietaer actually has a substantial history working for the tobacco industry, going back at least to 2004.