Harper’s “controversial” chief of staff sparks calls for PMO “shake up”
With the Prime Minister’s party lagging in recent public opinion polls, the time has come to try something different in the PMO, say some political observers. Since a Canadian Press report described Harper¹s chief of staff Guy Giorno as “one of the most controversial figures inside the nation’s top office” last week, speculation has been rampant about whether the once star staffer may soon be replaced. But as politics expert Dennis Pilon of the University of Victoria points out, while other leaders may have shaken up the PMO when their chips were down, Harper is a “different kind of political animal,” whose reaction is to go on the offensive. The recent attack ads on Ignatieff are proof of this.