Conservative sources say Australian Brian Loughnane has spent the past few months conducting in-person interviews with erstwhile members of Stephen Harper’s dysfunctional 2015 campaign team.
The federal Conservatives have turned to a prominent backroom veteran from overseas to help them make sense of where things went wrong in last fall's election.
Conservative sources say that Brian Loughnane – long one of the most powerful figures in the governing Liberal Party of Australia, for which he served as national director until this year – has spent much of the past few months conducting in-person interviews with erstwhile members of Stephen Harper's dysfunctional campaign team. Enlisted by the Tories' national council, he is building toward a postmortem to be presented around the time of the party's national convention this month.
Mr. Loughnane, who ran the past four campaigns for the right-leaning coalition that currently governs Australia, has had an informal relationship with Conservatives here dating back to advice he provided before Mr. Harper first won power in 2006. But his current role – focusing primarily on how things went off the rails at campaign headquarters, while Conservative Party executive director Dustin Van Vugt and former minister Diane Finley have toured the country talking to candidates and activists about their experiences on the ground – is an unusual amount of responsibility for an outsider.
That the Tories have turned to Mr. Loughnane, who declined to comment for this story, reflects their challenge in avoiding finger-pointing between various factions within the party, which could prevent them from drawing constructive lessons out of their defeat.
Well before election day last October, blame was already being apportioned for how the Conservative campaign had gone astray. Much of it was aimed at campaign director Jenni Byrne, who was accused of being ill-prepared, lacking personal discipline and sidelining experienced operatives in favour of cronies. Communications director Kory Teneycke was among other popular targets, as was campaign chair Guy Giorno to a lesser extent. Allies of Ms. Byrne complained she had been scapegoated and marginalized late in the campaign, and in February she published an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail defending the party's on-the-ground organization and implicitly blaming others for strategic mistakes.
Even Mr. Loughnane may not be able to avoid suspicions of being tied to particular factions, because his relationship with the Conservatives was initially built through former campaign officials – including the late senator Doug Finley and messaging guru Patrick Muttart – perceived by some Tories to have been mistreated by Ms. Byrne and others around Mr. Harper. He also has a good relationship with party president John Walsh – who is not known to be close with Ms. Byrne.
Mr. Loughnane's mandate, however, appears to be to avoid getting stuck in the muck that was hurled around behind the scenes. In an e-mail confirming his involvement, after it was reported by several people who were interviewed for the postmortem, Mr. Walsh described Mr. Loughnane as "an external adviser" who "has a long association with the CPC and brings both a familiarity with Canadian politics and dispassionate eyes to the review process."
"The point isn't to point fingers and say it was Jenni Byrne's fault or [former chief of staff to Mr. Harper] Ray Novak's fault or whatever," said one official from the Conservatives' 2015 campaign who was interviewed by Mr. Loughnane and who has been privately critical of Ms. Byrne; instead it is to prepare an objective list of organizational fixes or strategic lessons that could be put to use for the next election in 2019.
Another 2015 campaign official, closer to Ms. Byrne, said he had "heard a lot of rumours about bias in the election review," but Mr. Loughnane was "quite fair" and "made it clear he was looking to separate personalities from fact."
Depending on the interviewee, the questions apparently ranged from media relations to integration of digital strategy in the campaign's messaging to resources allocated to ridings. Perhaps most contentiously, Mr. Loughnane appears to be exploring whether the structure at the campaign's highest level led to gambits for which no one wanted to take responsibility after they backfired, such as perceived Muslim bashing or an appearance alongside Rob and Doug Ford shortly before election day.
Mr. Loughnane is also likely to flag a few campaign successes that the Conservatives might seek to build on, such as seat gains in Quebec that followed unusually strong candidate recruitment there. But considering that the Conservatives' previously well-oiled campaign machine by most accounts showed severe signs of atrophy, the report can be expected to be harsh, even if Mr. Loughnane does his best to avoid being salacious.
Combined with those of Mr. Van Vugt and Ms. Finley, his findings will be submitted to the party's national council in the next couple of weeks. While it does not appear the report will be released publicly in its entirety, delegates to the national convention in Vancouver likely will be presented the gist of it.
Unlike the last high-profile Australian to be linked to the Conservatives – controversial strategist Lynton Crosby, who was rumoured to be taking the helm midway through last year's campaign but in fact only offered a bit of advice from afar – Mr. Loughnane could have a significant impact on the party's future. But that will depend on how much the Tories' next leader, who is the report's real intended audience, finds it instructive in avoiding the pitfalls that befell Mr. Harper in his final campaign.
Adam Radwanski