HILL WHO'S WHO

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Nigel Wright new Chief of Staff to the PM

Nigel Wright will become Prime Minister Stephen Harper's third Chief of Staff. This fits a pattern of Harper appointing 40-something right-wing Ontarians to the position (Brodie, Giorno and now Wright).

The news media are all doing the same profiles on Nigel Wright. How he is a big shot deal-maker with Gerry Schwartz's Onex, and was a player in Mulroney's PMO.

But here at Canada NewsDesk we can reveal that he has a deep background in the backrooms of Canadian politics. Not only was he an active supporter of the Canadian Alliance (one of very few on Bay Street), but he played an important role in the merger of the PCs and CA in the background in 2003. He has also sat on the Board of the Conservative Fund Canada - the secretive body that controls the Tories fundraising and spending.

Besides a connection to Harvard, both Wright and Michael Ignatieff are graduates of the University of Toronto's Trinity College. No word yet on if they were both members of a certain prohibited secret student society.