The center of the circle

It’s hard to picture Justin Trudeau without Katie Telford, or Katie Telford without Justin Trudeau.

They are known to communicate through eye contact alone, and they trust each other implicitly. “They’re both introverts, and very guarded when it comes to letting people in. And I think they get each other in that way,” said one of the former staffers. “And so they formed this very close working relationship.”

Telford, 44, has worked by Trudeau’s side since he sought the Liberal leadership 10 years ago, back when the party had been reduced to third place in the Canadian Parliament after a series of disappointing leaders.

In a formidable partnership with Gerald Butts, a former environmental activist and close friend of Trudeau’s who would later serve as his principal secretary, she orchestrated the 2015 election campaign that vaulted the Liberals back from obscurity to defeat Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and form a majority government.

Until Butts resigned in 2019 amid a scandal over allegations of political interference in the justice system, he and Telford were Trudeau’s closest advisers. Their names were often mentioned in the same breath, and all major decisions went through them.

Since then, Telford alone has occupied the top spot in the PMO. She advises Trudeau on almost everything and keeps him on message, those who’ve worked with her say. She makes sure he gets time for a jog or a boxing workout when he’s on the road, and reminds him of upcoming birthdays.

And she is always there. A recent viral video that features Chinese President Xi Jinping confronting Trudeau at a G-20 leaders’ summit shows a watchful Telford waiting in the background.

She’s also a shrewd negotiator, according to Anne McGrath, national director of the left-wing New Democratic Party. Last year, the Liberals and NDP struck a deal that guaranteed NDP support for the Liberal minority government in exchange for progress on some of the party’s top priorities.

McGrath, who worked closely with Telford as the agreement took shape, said she was pragmatic but tough. Telford understood the NDP would need a big win out of the deal, and that a new dental-care program for low-income Canadians could be the ticket, McGrath said. “She recognized that that was both practical, doable and ambitious.”

Still, Trudeau has long been criticized for centralizing too much power in the PMO — in practice, since Butts left, that has meant all manner of decisions require Telford’s sign-off. “There were times where it just slows things down,” said one former official. “It’s inevitable.”

There have been efforts made to lighten the load on Telford’s shoulders. After the 2021 election, for example, she named two deputies. But some former colleagues say that as senior people have left the PMO, Telford’s inner circle has shrunk, leaving a less diverse set of voices to weigh in at pivotal moments.

One former PMO staffer said the office has inevitably become more insular. “We would all say we need to get out of this Ottawa bubble. We need to actually go and talk to real human beings. But it is impossible to actually do that when you are in that circle.”

There’s only a cadre of advisers Telford really trusts, some say, and many of them, like her, emerged from the halls of the Ontario provincial legislature. “If you’re not one of those, basically you don’t break into that circle,” said a second former Liberal official.

Two former officials pointed to French-speaking Quebec, the country’s second-largest province and a key electoral battleground for the Liberals, as a stumbling block for Telford and many of her top aides who hail from Ontario. One said an obvious example is Trudeau’s recent appointment of a special representative on combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, an announcement met with an uproar over previous comments she’d made suggesting a majority of Quebecers were swayed by anti-Muslim sentiment. “There was clearly a lack of understanding of the impact this would have in Quebec,” the former staffer said.

Others say valuable advisers have left and been replaced by young aides with little experience outside government. “It’s strictly been partisan Liberals who are devoted and loyal to Katie,” said another former staffer. “What the PM needs is a fresh set of ideas and thinking.”