{"id":180818,"date":"2025-09-30T20:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/180818\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T20:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:08:07","slug":"nigel-wright-long-time-onex-executive-and-former-chief-of-staff-to-stephen-harper-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/180818\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Wright, long-time Onex executive and former chief of staff to Stephen Harper, has died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/SL3JNXHVRZGPRG5727JUQDFIFQ.jpg?auth=aaff84ee485c98ce1a938bc616529de87ccbf04c81551ee5d79a4b4896419408&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">Nigel Wright, former chief of staff to Stephen Harper, took a leave of absence from Onex to join Mr. Harper\u2019s team early in 2011 and became a key player in the Conservative government.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Nigel Wright, a long-time Onex executive and former chief of staff to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has died. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Onex Corporation announced his death in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onex.com\/article\/2025NewsRelease-NSW-September30\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.onex.com\/article\/2025NewsRelease-NSW-September30\">statement<\/a> Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Mr. Wright joined the investment firm in 1997. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">He then took a leave of absence to join Mr. Harper\u2019s team early in 2011 and became a key player in the Conservative government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">But he resigned in 2013 in the midst of the Senate expenses scandal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">He subsequently returned to Onex, moving to the United Kingdom to join the firm\u2019s operations there. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Company President Bobby Le Blanc called Mr. Wright a consummate gentleman who set the standard for professionalism. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cOver nearly three decades with Onex, he was committed to its values, its culture, and most of all its people, who regarded him with deep admiration and affection,\u201d Mr. Le Blanc said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The company did not provide a cause of death. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Former colleagues from politics also remembered him fondly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cVery saddened to hear of the passing of Nigel Wright,\u201d wrote Ian Brodie, another of Mr. Harper\u2019s former chiefs on social media. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cIn addition to his business and investment acumen, Nigel had a long life of public service and I remember all my times working with him with great fondness. My sympathies to all his friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Nigel Wright, former chief of staff to Stephen Harper, took a leave of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-180818","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\/180818","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=180818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}