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In 2001, not long after Peter Donolo had left Jean Chrétien's employ, the Liberals held a caucus meeting where there were shouts of “Bring back Peter! Bring back Peter!”

It took eight years, but now he's back. The mission is the same one he had when he first joined the Chrétien team – get the sinking Liberal ship afloat again. He just might be able to do it.

Party members at a Liberal caucus meeting yesterday, though annoyed at the amateurish way the highly professional Ian Davey was dismissed, were giddy at the prospect of the Chrétien guy's return. While the leader, Michael Ignatieff, was more subdued, “they went on ad nauseam about the wisdom in the change,” said one. “It was Donolo to the rescue.”

In the Chrétien era, Mr. Donolo, always quick with a quip, was able to keep tensions from spilling overboard between the warring Chrétien and Paul Martin camps. It was one of the reasons the caucus hollered for his return. He had joined the opposition leader's team back in 1991 when Mr. Chrétien, like the leader today, was staggering. Jean Pelletier, the new chief of staff, deserves most of the credit for the subsequent turnaround but Mr. Donolo, who first worked in politics on a Pierre Trudeau campaign at age 14, was an important player.

He was savvy and popular in the role of communications director, showing a sense of tact and good humour. A big admirer of the Kennedys, he was and is highly attuned to the big thing in politics – imaging.

Of course, in Michael Ignatieff he has a much different leader to sell than the rough and tumble Jean Chrétien. You couldn't bring much Kennedy panache to the street fighter. Mr. Donolo once recalled the infamous moment in 1996 when his boss took a protester by the throat and hurled him to the ground like a sack of barley. Aline Chrétien was alarmed. She thought her husband might have to resign. Mr. Donolo rightly sensed the public reaction would be different.

The PM called him nervously one day to ask about the polls. “So what are they saying?”

“Well,” said the young aide, “I don't want to tell you boss, because if I do, you're going to want to go out and throttle somebody else.”

In Jean Chrétien, he was marketing a populist; in Michael Ignatieff, someone who was to the manor born and who must stake out that higher ground as opposed to being dragged into the pit of tactical games and brute politics that Stephen Harper relishes.

The big changes in the leader's shop were necessary. Mr. Ignatieff had to signal a new direction and you don't do that by sticking with the old team. There is some truth to the oft-heard complaint that his team of advisers took someone with a rarefied air, someone who was deemed to have special qualities and gave him the look of a conventional political mercenary – exactly what Canadians, looking for something fresh, looking to get beyond the platitudes of the past, did not want.

Since leaving the Chrétien office, Mr. Donolo has worked as consul-general in Milan and served with the polling firm, The Strategic Counsel, an experience that should prove valuable.

As the new chief of staff, however, he takes on much larger and more exacting responsibilities than he has ever known. Men who have turned things around for their leaders before – Derek Burney in Brian Mulroney's office, Jean Pelletier with Mr. Chrétien – had more experience in running big operations than Mr. Donolo.

Because he is a Chrétien guy and because the Chrétien team supported Bob Rae's leadership bid, there are murmurings that his appointment could serve to increase tensions in the party. Conservative Senator Mike Duffy was immediately out with BlackBerry messages to that effect when the appointment was announced. But Mr. Donolo is far too familiar with the backstabbing intrigues of the party and the damage done to let any of that type of innuendo enter the picture.

He knows the Ignatieff image can be turned around. He need only look at the Chrétien period in opposition, as well as the Harper experience – his lousy first year as leader of the Alliance Party – to understand that when you drop so low, there aren't many other ways to go. It's either up or out the door.