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Wildrose slams appointment of NDP president to McDougall Centre job

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The Wildrose blasted the Notley government Tuesday for the “patronage” appointment of the NDP’s president to a $140,000-a-year government post in Calgary.

Chris O’Halloran, the party president and acting provincial secretary, is listed on the Alberta government’s website as outreach manager in Premier Rachel Notley’s southern Alberta office in McDougall Centre.

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The official Opposition noted that O’Halloran joins former NDP candidate Bob Hawkesworth, McDougall Centre’s executive director, whose responsibilities include outreach, while Marcella Munro works out of the same office as “stakeholder outreach and communications manager.”

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Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon said the roles are unclear and the position appears to be simple patronage.

“We’re just concerned with the habit that the premier seems to be getting into of hiring political friends into positions,” Nixon said in an interview.

But Notley’s spokeswoman, Cheryl Oates, said O’Halloran’s new job at McDougall Centre is a political staff position — akin to the premier’s chief of staff or press secretary — and not a civil service post.

While O’Halloran, a former official with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, is based out of Calgary, his job is provincial in scope and he reports to the premier’s office in Edmonton, said Oates.

“Chris is a born-and-bred Albertan who has proven himself as a leader in the labour movement and he has a long history of working with civil society and organizations in Alberta, so his knowledge and skills are a great asset,” she said.

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Hawkesworth runs the office in McDougall Centre, while Munro’s duties are to work with Calgary businesses and politicians, she said.

Oates said O’Halloran has not yet taken the government post, although his appointment is imminent, and he currently remains in his NDP position. O’Halloran could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said that while political staff in government often have a partisan background, the optics of the move aren’t good for Notley.

“The blatancy of taking the president of the party and giving him a job is something even the PCs didn’t do,” he said.

Bratt noted that while there were political staffers based out of McDougall Centre under the former Progressive Conservative government, there have also been perennial questions about what role the downtown Calgary office should play in the government.

He said the appointment of Hawkesworth to run McDougall Centre in November could be defended on its merits, but it raised questions that a soft landing had been arranged for the veteran NDPer after he lost in the Calgary-Foothills byelection in September.

Nixon said he’s concerned O’Halloran still holds his party position, even with his government appointment in the work. The Wildrose’s accountability critic said McDougall Centre should not “be used as a place for partisan, patronage appointments.”

However, Nixon said he could not rule out a future Wildrose government having political staff in the building.

“We would be clear there has to be a process … you need to be able to clearly show you’ve done the process to make sure you’ve hired the right person for the job.”

jwood@calgaryherald.com

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