{"id":151604,"date":"2025-09-18T01:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151604\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T01:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:20:07","slug":"former-justice-minister-david-lametti-abruptly-departs-pmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151604\/","title":{"rendered":"Former justice minister David Lametti abruptly departs PMO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources say David Lametti lost a turf battle with Tom Pitfield, who shared the dual role of principal secretary.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Former justice minister David Lametti is leaving his position as Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s<\/a> principal secretary, less than three months after taking up the top political job, two sources say.<\/p>\n

One of the sources said Mr. Lametti lost a turf battle with Tom Pitfield, who shared the dual role of principal secretary.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pitfield is a long-time political strategist whose company Data Sciences, which he headed for years, provided digital operations for the Liberal Party. He moved into the PMO in March, resigning as chief executive of Data Sciences. Previously, Mr. Pitfield held the title of chief digital strategist under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and then Mr. Carney.<\/p>\n

The two sources said Mr. Lametti is expected to be given a plum diplomatic appointment, likely as ambassador to the United Nations. The UN ambassadorship is currently held by former Liberal MP Bob Rae, 77, who was appointed to the role in 2020. <\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources, who were not authorized to discuss internal PMO staffing decisions.<\/p>\n

Top adviser to Carney and Liberal Party strategist Tom Pitfield has ties to Big Tobacco, sources say<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion: Carney\u2019s inner circle of aging white guys has the experience the Trudeau team lacked<\/a><\/p>\n

The CBC was the first to report that Mr. Lametti was departing the PMO for a possible diplomatic role. Mr. Lametti could not be reached for comment and the PMO declined to discuss personnel matters. <\/p>\n

The Globe previously reported that former cabinet ministers Bill Blair and Jonathan Wilkinson, now sitting as backbench MPs, are expected to be appointed as envoys to Great Britain and Germany, respectively.<\/p>\n

The role of principal secretary was once the most senior job in the PMO but has since been taken over by the chief of staff. The principal secretary handles political files and co-ordinates policy and government decisions.<\/p>\n

In July, Mr. Carney recruited Mr. Lametti, a close friend, as his principal secretary as part of high-powered triumvirate.<\/p>\n

He selected as his chief of staff Marc-Andre Blanchard, a prominent Quebec lawyer and business leader. For Clerk of the Privy Council, the country\u2019s top bureaucrat, the Prime Minister brought in Michael Sabia, the chief executive of Hydro\u2011Qu\u00e9bec and a former deputy finance minister.<\/p>\n

The three men were judged to be the key players in Mr. Carney\u2019s ambitious agenda to remake the Canadian economy in the face of a trade war with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail reported earlier this month that Mr. Pitfield is one of the largest shareholders of Data Sciences, which has for years been working on behalf of Philip Morris International in Canada and globally. <\/p>\n

Philip Morris is the world\u2019s largest tobacco company and earned more than US$37-billion in revenue last year, nearly two-thirds from cigarettes. In response to declining smoking rates, large tobacco companies have been pivoting to promote vapes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pitfield\u2019s business connection does not fit with current and past Liberal governments\u2019 record of pushing stricter measures to discourage Canadians from smoking and using tobacco products because of the health risks.<\/p>\n

But the Prime Minister brushed off any concerns about the morality of Mr. Pitfield\u2019s previous work, saying it\u2019s legal to buy cigarettes in Canada. <\/p>\n

He also dismissed as a \u201cnon-issue\u201d calls from anti-smoking groups to prohibit Mr. Pitfield from involvement in health care policy decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Sources say David Lametti lost a turf battle with Tom Pitfield, who shared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-151604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}