Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister (Canada)

Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister
Incumbent Marco Mendicino since March 14, 2025
Office of the Prime Minister
Seat	Langevin Block
Appointer	Prime Minister of Canada
Formation	1987
First holder	Derek Burney

The Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister is the top official in Canada's Prime Minister's Office (PMO). ^[1] The position was created in 1987 to head the PMO. ^[2]

Prior to the creation of the chief of staff position, the office was headed by the prime minister's principal secretary, a position that is now secondary to the chief of staff. ^[2] Individuals who held the position of principal secretary prior to 1987 were essentially de facto chiefs of staff, and may sometimes be informally referred to as chiefs of staff in some sources, but did not hold the formal title chief of staff.

Bernard Roy, Brian Mulroney's principal secretary from 1984 to 1988, was the last principal secretary to act as head of the PMO before the creation of the chief of staff position. ^[2]

List of Chiefs of Staff

No.	Name	Term of office		Political party	Ministry	Reference
1	Derek Burney	1987	1989	Progressive Conservative	24 (Mulroney)	[2]
2	Stanley Hartt	1989	1990	Progressive Conservative		[3]
3	Norman Spector	1990	1992	Progressive Conservative		[4]
4	Hugh Segal	1992	1993	Progressive Conservative		[5]
5	David McLaughlin	1993	1993	Progressive Conservative		[6]
6	Jodi White	1993	1993	Progressive Conservative	25 (Campbell)	[7]
7	Jean Pelletier	1993	2001	Liberal	26 (Chrétien)	[8]
8	Percy Downe	2001	2003	Liberal		[9]
9	Edward Goldenberg	2003	2003	Liberal		[10]
10	Tim Murphy	2003	2006	Liberal	27 (Martin)	[11]
11	Ian Brodie	2006	2008	Conservative	28 (Harper)	[12]
12	Guy Giorno	2008	2010	Conservative		[13]
13	Nigel Wright	2011	2013	Conservative		[14]
14	Ray Novak	2013	2015	Conservative		[15]
15	Katie Telford	2015	2025	Liberal	29 (J. Trudeau)	[16]
16	Marco Mendicino	2025	Incumbent	Liberal	30 (M. Carney)	[17]

Further reading

• Pickering, Heath; Bellens, Tom; Brans, Marleen (2024). "The prime minister's chief of staff: Comparing profiles and trends in Westminster democracies, 1990–2021". Governance . 37 (4): 1231–1249 – via Wiley Online Library.

References

1. "In Defense of Political Staff". Canadian Parliamentary Review (Vol. 35, No. 3), 2012.
2. "Another change by PM". Windsor Star , March 13, 1987.
3. "Montrealer Hartt named PM's chief of staff". Montreal Gazette , December 15, 1988.
4. "PM picks top bureaucrat to be new chief of staff". Financial Post , August 16, 1990.
5. "PM appoints political pro chief of staff; Meech architect becomes envoy". Edmonton Journal , January 8, 1992.
6. "Tories' 'happy warrior' quits Mulroney's office". Toronto Star , April 29, 1993.
7. "Campbell's new cabinet to be leaner and meaner". Montreal Gazette , June 25, 1993.
8. "Ex-mayor who was defeated by Bloc appointed Chretien's chief of staff". Montreal Gazette , October 30, 1993.
9. "Percy Downe named chief of staff to Prime Minister's Office". The Guardian , May 5, 2001.
10. "PM aide brings hammer down: Grit party boss warned to get in line". Calgary Herald , June 27, 2003.
11. "Familiar faces round out Martin's PMO". The Globe and Mail , December 12, 2003.
12. "Ad hoc process to grill nominee warrants caution". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix , February 21, 2006.
13. "Giorno takes the helm in PMO". The Globe and Mail , July 2, 2008.
14. "PM's staff chief 'right man'". Edmonton Journal , January 6, 2011.
15. "Ray Novak's long ties to Harper". The Globe and Mail , May 20, 2013.
16. "Leadership of the Prime Minister's Office". Official website of the Parliament of Canada. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
17. Boudjikanian, Raffy (March 12, 2025). "Carney chief of staff's time in cabinet, stance on Gaza under scrutiny". CBC News . Retrieved March 16, 2025.