Carleton’s director of university communications Jason MacDonald will go head to head with Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty in the upcoming provincial elections as the newest candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, according to an announcement Feb. 24.
After nearly two years as director of communications MacDonald is looking to unseat McGuinty in the Oct. 6 election.
“I’m in this to win,” MacDonald said via email of his chances in the Ottawa South riding against McGuinty, who had 50 per cent of the vote in the 2007 elections, according to Elections Canada.
McGuinty has held the riding since 1990, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
MacDonald has been the public face for Carleton for a variety of issues, including the narrowly-avoided strikes of the school's faculty members, administrators and public employees in November 2010.
If he were to win, MacDonald said he would leave Carleton but until then he will retain his position.
President Roseann Runte dismissed any possibilities of a conflict of interest, saying via email that protocols, which she would not elaborate on, were put in place to ensure “MacDonald will not be in a position of conflict of interest.”
“Should I find myself in a position of conflict because of my role, I would recuse myself from any discussions or decision-making related to post-secondary education policy,” MacDonald said.
“If I win and leave Carleton as a result of that I assume that the university would replace me,” MacDonald said. “In the interim I will work with my colleagues and the administration to develop a plan for managing the duties and responsibilities of the role of director of university communications during my leave of absence for the duration of the election campaign.”
Runte confirmed he would take a leave of absence during the formal election period.
MacDonald said if unsuccessful he will return to Carleton.
However, his current focus is on the larger campaign of leader Tim Hudak. “I’m looking forward to helping make [Hudak] the next Premier of Ontario,” he said.
“The McGuinty government is out-of-gas and out-of-touch with the priorities of Ottawa families. An Ontario PC Government will focus on the services that matter most to them, like frontline healthcare and safe neighbourhoods,” MacDonald said in a statement on the PC party website.
Previously employed at CBC television, CBC corporate communication and Veritas Communications in Toronto before his appointment to Carleton in 2009, MacDonald will not be the first communications staff member to make the leap to politics, he said.
Cumberland councillor Stephen Blais was a communications officer at Carleton until his appointment in the 2010 mayoral election, MacDonald confirmed.
“Jason MacDonald and I will give Ottawa families the respect they deserve and the relief they need from Dalton McGuinty’s endless tax and hydro rate hikes that have stretched family budgets to the limit,” said Hudak in a statement on the PC party website.