Latest news with #Lametti
Montreal Gazette
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
David Lametti says old friend Mark Carney brought him back into politics
By OTTAWA — Sitting at a café a couple of blocks from the House of Commons on a very hot June afternoon, David Lametti was telling an anecdote about a recent meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Lametti — the former member of Parliament for LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and federal justice minister — had left politics at the beginning of 2024, several months after he'd been dropped from cabinet by ex-PM Justin Trudeau. But in June he accepted Carney's offer to become the new prime minister's principal secretary. His first day on the job was Monday. Lametti and Carney are old friends, having played together on the Oxford University hockey team in the 1990s. 'The last time I went to his house for a meeting, he had a playlist on,' said Lametti. 'It was Spotify or Apple Music. And I said, 'Carney, you picked a playlist that I really like.' And he said, 'I did it on purpose.' He smiled and gave me a thumbs up. It was a lot of '90s stuff, the stuff we were listening to in the U.K. He said, 'I picked it for you Hammer'.' 'Hammer' was Lametti's nickname on the Oxford ice-hockey team, as they call it in that part of the world, in tribute, Lametti says, to the fact that he was a tough defenceman. Carney was the team's goalie. Lametti has always been a big music fan, often posting pics on Facebook of the vinyl albums he's listening to, and Carney is also a music guy, as many found out during the recent federal election campaign. Carney talked at length in one interview about how much he loved British punk band The Clash. Carney is a relative newcomer to the Canadian political scene and most of us still don't know him all that well. Lametti says his old pal is a straight shooter. 'He's charming and very very funny,' said Lametti. 'You guys, journalists, got some glimpses of that during the campaign. But he's also really smart and really demanding. He expects the best from himself and he expects the best from people around him.' Lametti and Carney became friends while playing hockey in Oxford together for three years and they remained close in the 25 years since. And it's entirely because of that friendship that Lametti is back on Parliament Hill. Lametti, who'd been a McGill University law professor for 20 years, entered politics in 2015, winning the seat for the Liberals in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. When he stepped down last year, he joined the law firm of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin. 'When I left politics, it's funny, they asked me at Fasken's, if I was done, and I said, 'I am done, with one exception, if my old friend Mark Carney runs, I've promised him I'll give him a hand',' said Lametti. 'I helped him informally, introducing him to people in caucus in the early stages. I gave him advice during the leadership campaign and did the same thing during the election campaign. ... Along the way we began to talk about a more serious kind of engagement. The principal secretary role is one that I think fits. So you're working with the prime minister and the chief of staff with respect to policy direction.' Lametti, who was born in Port Colborne, Ont., but has lived in Quebec for decades, is just one of many Quebecers in prominent positions in Carney's government, a clear recognition of the crucial support Carney received from la belle province in the election. Carney's chief of staff is Marc-André Blanchard, a former ambassador to the United Nations, and Carney also tapped prominent Quebec business executive Michael Sabia to be clerk of the Privy Council. Lametti says he's there entirely because of Carney. 'I have a lot of confidence in his abilities,' said Lametti. 'I've obviously known him as the smartest guy in the room, the smartest guy in the dressing room. And he has a set of economic chops that are unparalleled in the world. I was very happy at Fasken's. They treated me extremely well. But you can't say no to a friend and you can't say no to your country. This is an important time to step up.' Lametti admits it wasn't easy when he lost his job as justice minister during a cabinet shuffle in July 2023, after holding the position for just over four years. 'It was one of the hardest times of my life,' said Lametti. 'I expressed surprise at the time, when I was left out of cabinet. But on the other hand, in our system it's the prime minister's decision. You serve at their pleasure and clearly that period was over in my life. I found that I couldn't represent my constituents any longer and at that point it was time to step down.' He insists there are no hard feelings between him and Trudeau. 'It's cordial,' said Lametti. 'I saw him last week just here at a local restaurant. We get along just fine.' He said everyone in the prime minister's office understands Quebec has an important role to play in this government. 'I think there is an understanding that Quebec is important and that Quebec's particularities need to be understood, francophone and anglophone,' he said. 'The anglophone community in Quebec is as particular as the francophone community in its own way.' Lametti was asked how good Carney was as a goalie. 'He was quite good, he was the best guy on our team,' said Lametti. 'He had played junior varsity at Harvard. He's a smallish goalie but a good-reflexes goalie.'
Winnipeg Free Press
10-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Former justice minister David Lametti confirms start date as adviser to PM Carney
OTTAWA – Former Liberal justice minister David Lametti starts his new job in Mark Carney's Prime Minister's Office on Monday. Lametti posted on LinkedIn to confirm his start date as Carney's principal secretary, a top political aide position. Carney's new chief of staff, former UN ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, started in his role at the beginning of the week. Lametti, Blanchard and Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia are the key hires in Carney's inner circle. Sabia is a former deputy minister of finance and was president and CEO of Hydro-Quebec before he was tapped to take over as the head of the civil service. He sent a letter to the public service on Monday, warning that some internal government processes have become too complicated and telling public servants they must focus on the government's priorities. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
LILLEY: Carney puts together new team of Trudeau has-beens
Mark Carney is showing that he is the agent of change by appointing two former Trudeau cabinet ministers as his top advisers. Marco Mendicino is Carney's chief of staff, David Lametti is part of Carney's transition team. Mendicino and Lametti were famous while in cabinet for joking about how many tanks were needed for quelling the Freedom Convoy in 2022. 'You need to get the police to move. And the CAF if necessary. Too many people are being seriously adversely impacted by what is an occupation,' Lametti, then the justice minister, texted Mendicino, then the public safety minister. That was in early February 2022, just days after the convoy arrived in Ottawa. 'How many tanks are you asking for?' Mendicino asked. 'I reckon one will do!!' was Lametti's reply. That's not a good look for Carney and his incoming team. Even people who had no time for the Freedom Convoy recoiled at two senior cabinet ministers in the Trudeau government talking about using tanks to quell a domestic political protest. Now, these two men are top advisers to Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney. Mendicino was dropped from cabinet in July 2023 after a series of missteps. He lied about police asking for the Emergencies Act to be invoked to end the convoy, he introduced gun legislation that would ban common hunting rifles and shotguns and was denounced by Indigenous leaders, and he seemed incompetent when he couldn't provide answers on serial killer Paul Bernardo being transferred to a medium security prison. Lametti was a law professor at McGill University espousing bizarre left-wing theories before seeking office in the 2015 election. In 2019, Lametti was made justice minister after Justin Trudeau moved Jody Wilson-Raybould out of the portfolio because she refused to give SNC-Lavalin a sweetheart deal in their prosecution over fraud and corruption allegations. Trudeau was found to have violated the ethics rules by trying to improperly influence Wilson-Raybould in the SNC-Lavalin affair. Lametti defended the government's actions throughout the scandal. People at the centre of some of Trudeau's worst political moments are now the top advisers to Carney, the agent of change. Carney himself has been the chief economic adviser to the Trudeau government since the summer of 2020. That's almost five years. His campaign team was made of Gerry Butts, he received support from people like Katie Telford, most of the PMO and the majority of Trudeau's cabinet. There is no way that Carney can claim to be the agent of change that he wants to be. Just look at some of the bills that Lametti promoted as justice minister. LILLEY: Call an election now so Canada has a government with a mandate LILLEY: Carney's Liberal coronation is just what Trudeau ordered With Bill C-5, introduced by Lametti, the Liberals scrapped mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders for crimes such as gun smuggling and gun trafficking. With Bill C-75, championed by Lametti but introduced by Wilson-Raybould, bail became the default position that all judges and justices of the peace were instructed to take. Carney has just hired one of the architects of the Trudeau government's soft-on-crime approach to help him bring change. Do you trust him or his team to actually deliver change? The Carney team who takes issue with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre saying that Canada is broken wants you to forget about the broken justice system, the broken jail system, the broken immigration system, our that housing prices having doubled. All the people responsible for those files under Trudeau now support or are working for Carney, the man promising change from the Trudeau government. They've changed the guy out front. The rest of the team, the rest of the policies, are the same as the failed policies that have brought Canada to this point.
