Ottawa

Dept. of office memos: Guy Giorno heads for the exit

From the Inkless Emailbox, a forwarded email from Stephen Harper’s chief of staff on his last day on the job:

From: Guy Giorno

Subject: Farewell and Thanks / Au revoir et merci

Sent: 31 Dec 2010

After exactly two and one-half wonderful years, New Year’s Eve 2010 will be my last day as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada. On January 1, I return to the private practice of law. Details will be announced on Tuesday.

Public service is a privilege. The opportunity to contribute to the betterment of Canada is a privilege. Yet these privileges were magnified by the chance to work for a principled, strong, ethical and patriotic leader: someone here for all the right reasons, here for Canada, here for Canadians.

Facing one of the worst global recessions in a lifetime, this Government made prudent decisions (e.g., no bank bailouts) and then introduced a sweeping, affirmative Economic Action Plan to protect the economy and steered Canada through the global economic recession. The recovery is fragile but it is real and our economy is outperforming the economies of many countries of the world. By exercising fiscal restraint and keeping taxes low, we continue to protect existing jobs and support the creation of new ones.

On the political level, we won a general election, only the eighth time in 40 elections that a governing party has increased both its seat count and its share of the popular vote. We eliminated the so-called gender gap and made inroads into communities that have not voted Conservative for decades. The party’s net gain in by-elections (plus three seats) is the strongest by-election record for an incumbent government in 110 years.

Today, our standing in the polls is stronger and higher than when I first arrived.

Credit for these achievements belong, first, to our leader and Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and, second, to the hard working men and women of the Conservative Caucus. The achievements are theirs. It was a privilege just to be along for the ride.

It was a pleasure and an honour to work with each of you and your staffs. Thank you for the opportunity to work and to serve together.

My successor, Nigel Wright, is a man of principle, vision and prodigious intellect. He is an inspired choice. And, should Mr. Ignatieff’s coalition decide to force an unnecessary and opportunistic election, Nigel will emerge as chief of staff to a majority Prime Minister.

Thanks again. It’s been great!

Guy

P.S. You can follow me on Twitter at @guygiorno.

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