The Harper ride came to an end in 2015. Lantsman fol- lowed the typical path for former staffers by going to work for lobbying firms: first Hill & Knowlton, which she de- scribes as “consulting university,” and then Enterprise Can- ada, a smaller shop founded by a pair of former journalists. She also sought to build a public persona, writing columns for the Toronto Sun that blasted the government on issues that were red meat to the Tory party’s base, such as Trudeau’s decision to vacation at the Aga Khan’s private island. Interestingly, Lantsman occasionally poked at her fel- low Conservatives, taking aim at the subsequently dropped #MeToo accusations against Tory leadership candidate
Diamond, now an executive with a student housing plat- form. “You’re in your early twenties. You have an identity as a Jewish person, and a connection to Israel, and this thing is happening on campus.” It was a galvanizing moment. Two years later, a stridently anti-Muslim Zionist youth group, Betar-Tagar, organized a “Know Radical Islam Week” as a counter-protest. Lantsman, by then Hillel U of T’s vice- chair, felt the project went against Hillel’s inter-faith collab- oration with U of T’s Muslim Students Association. “I don’t think Betar-Tagar necessarily represents the whole picture,” she told a National Post reporter. “This week particularly, they’re shedding light on radical Islam. We’re trying to foster
Patrick Brown and calling out then– federal leader Andrew Scheer for his ev- ident discomfort with LGBTQ rights. “Now is the time for some serious in- trospection on the part of the Conserva- tives,” she and political consultant Jamie Ellerton, a friend, wrote in a Globe and Mail op-ed. “Being stuck in the past will not help them win in the future.” Unlike an earlier generation of openly gay politicians, Lantsman says her sexual orientation doesn’t really reg- ister. “A lot of people paved the way be- fore so this isn’t an issue now,” she says. “I get twice as much, or frankly ten times as much, [email] about being Jewish than I do about anything else. And that fright- ens me, because I also never thought that I would have to be openly Jewish and put a marker on it as a point of pride.” She briefly dabbled in Ontario pol- itics, managing Caroline Mulroney’s unsuccessful leadership campaign.
a better understanding of spirituality.” After the hothouse bubble of cam- pus politics, Lantsman landed a position as a parliamentary intern and soon ended up working as a commu- nications staffer for a succession of Stephen Harper cabinet ministers, including Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Finance Min- ister Joe Oliver. “She really is a child of the Harper years,” says consultant and pundit Scott Reid, a former Paul Martin political staffer who has known Lantsman for several years. “That’s her conservative compass.” He adds that she was quickly spotted as a talent. Political staffers are an odd and often unloved invasive species in Otta- wa, especially if they’re working on the government side. Frequently starting out as campaign foot soldiers, they’re young, usually single, and expected to be on call 24/7. Despite their age and
I NEVER THOUGHT THAT I WOULD HAVE TO BE OPENLY JEWISH AND PUT A MARKER ON IT AS A POINT OF PRIDE .
(Lantsman says Caroline’s father, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, called out of the blue and asked her to take the job.) She then took on “issues management” in the Tory war room during Doug Ford’s first campaign, in 2018. While Lantsman could have had an influential role in a new Ford government with a large majority, she didn’t care for provincial politics, which felt, after Ottawa, like a bit of a backwater. “I frankly just wasn’t interested in working in that orbit.” (Ford and Poilievre have since become very public rivals, and Lantsman seems to have picked a side.) About two years later, Peter Kent, the former journalist and Thornhill MP, announced his retirement after thirteen years in office. Lantsman wanted that job—had wanted it for a long time. If working as a political staffer is tough, the role of MP can be even more of a grind, especially in Oppo- sition. But there was little debate about seeking the nomina- tion, says Leah Carr. “She never said, Am I crazy? Should I keep doing this? Like all successful people, [she] continuous- ly questions [her] path and [her] goals. ... But those conversa- tions never ended on No, you shouldn’t do this .”
inexperience, staffers carry the authority of senior minis- ters when they deal with the seasoned bureaucrats who run the capital and sometimes chafe at being told what to do by twenty-somethings. Staffers also have to contend with friendly fire: dressings-down by shouty ministers, as well as the ever-present threat of being ousted for a mistake that embarrasses the government. Some, like Lantsman, regard these seemingly thankless jobs as stepping stones to elected office. Working in com- munications, she gained a reputation for her knack with political messaging and making sure that the government’s pronouncements landed with the Conservatives’ key con- stituencies. She was also known for speaking frankly to whomever happened to be in the room. “Melissa is some- body with incredible moral clarity,” says Josh Zanin, a gov- ernment relations consultant with Proof Strategies, who worked as a staffer with her during the Harper years. “She is not afraid to point out an inconsistency when she sees something that means somebody’s being overlooked or ignored or harmed. She doesn’t have a lot of patience for it.”
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