Ep. #140: Parties plan, the election gods laugh

Mark Carney kicked off Canada’s election campaign on Sunday and already parties are discovering that their best laid plans can go awry very quickly. So, what goes on behind the scenes when parties draw up their strategies for a campaign and what happens when they have to react to the unexpected? Throughout this election, I’ll be joined periodically by three veteran party organizers to explain the ins and outs of campaigning — and help make some sense of just what is happening out on the hustings. Vandana Kattar was the director of operations, outreach and planning for former prime minister Justin Trudeau and was one of the co-hosts of the Race to Replace podcast during the past Liberal leadership contest. Melanie Paradis was director of communications for past Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole and is president of Texture Communications . Cheryl Oates was the executive director of communications and planning for former Alberta premier Rachel Notley. She’s principal at GT Executive Advisors and is the co-host of The Discourse podcast. In addition to listening to this episode of The Writ Podcast in your inbox, at TheWrit.ca or on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts , you can also watch this episode on YouTube . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

You can listen to Ep. #140: Parties plan, the election gods laugh online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep. #140: Parties plan, the election gods laugh is an episode from The Writ Podcast by Éric Grenier.

This episode is 35:37 long.

This episode was published on Mar 26, 2025.

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