Warren Kinsella
Encyclopedia
- For the Canadian author, see W. P. KinsellaW. P. KinsellaWilliam Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well-known for his novel Shoeless Joe , which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989...
.
Warren James Douglas Kinsella (born August 1960 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
), is a Toronto-based Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, political consultant, commentator, and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger. He is the president and co-founder of The Daisy Consulting Group.
Personal life
He is the son of physician and medical ethicist Douglas KinsellaDouglas Kinsella
T. Douglas Kinsella, CM , BA, MD, FACP, FRCPC was a Canadian expert on medical ethics and founder of Canada's National Council on Ethics in Human Research.-Career:...
, C.M., founder of the National Council on Ethics in Human Research (NCEHR).
He and his wife have four children. In late 2000, he established a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
.
Campaign strategist
Kinsella served as a strategist in the Canadian federal Liberal PartyLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
's 1993 election campaign
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
"task force", as a staffer in opposition leader Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
's office. After the Liberals won the election to form the government, Kinsella became chief of staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
to federal Public Works minister David Dingwall
David Dingwall
David Charles Dingwall, PC is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and civil servant.A lawyer by training, Dingwall was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1980 Canadian federal election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Cape Breton—East Richmond in Nova Scotia...
. He also worked in the party's war room in the 2000 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....
, where he gained national exposure by appearing on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
's Canada AM
Canada AM
Canada AM is a Canadian breakfast television news show, which has aired on the CTV Television Network since 1972. It is currently hosted by Beverly Thomson and Seamus O'Regan, with Marci Ien reporting from the headline news desk and Jeff Hutcheson presenting the weather forecast and sports...
brandishing a purple Barney dinosaur to mock Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
's creationist beliefs, which saw the Liberals win a third mandate. While he promotes himself on his website as a "top Canadian spin doctor," journalist Paul Wells
Paul Wells
Paul Wells is a Canadian journalist and pundit, currently working as a columnist for Maclean's. His column previously appeared in the back page slot famously occupied for many years by Allan Fotheringham, but is now kept at the front of the magazine with other columns.- Background :Wells was born...
, in a 2001 article, questioned whether his role has been significantly exaggerated.
Liberal candidate
Kinsella ran as a Liberal candidate in the 1997 federal electionCanadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
in the riding of North Vancouver
North Vancouver (electoral district)
North Vancouver is a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988.-Demographics:-Geography:...
but was defeated by Reform
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
incumbent Ted White
Ted White (politician)
Edward Alexander White was a member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was first elected in the North Vancouver riding in 1993 as a Reform Party of Canada candidate in the 35th Canadian Parliament. He was re-elected in 1997 and 2000...
.
Chrétien supporter
A vocal supporter of Prime Minister Jean ChrétienJean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
, Kinsella criticized the campaign of Chrétien's rival and successor, Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
, several times in the 2004 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
, and 2006 election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
. In these elections, the Liberals were reduced from a majority to a minority government and then defeated in favor of a Conservative minority government, respectively.
In December 2006, he revealed on his National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
blog that his firm had been actively supporting the candidacy of new Liberal leader Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Maurice Dion, PC, MP is a Canadian politician who has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville in Montreal since 1996. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 2006 to 2008...
.
McGuinty supporter
Kinsella also was involved in the 2007 re-election campaign of OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
and his Ontario Liberal Party
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
. In the 2007 campaign, he wrote a blog post suggesting that Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod
Lisa MacLeod
Lisa MacLeod is a Canadian politician, who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on March 30, 2006 and subsequently re-elected on October 10, 2007...
would rather bake cookies than be seen on a stage with farm activist Randy Hillier, who later ran successfully for the Conservatives. Several candidates from opposition parties denounced the post as offensive to women, and Kinsella issued an apology. The incident prompted MacLeod to write the cookbook
Cookbook
A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...
I'd Rather Be Baking Cookies: A Collection of Recipes from Lisa MacLeod and Friends
I'd Rather Be Baking Cookies: A Collection of Recipes from Lisa MacLeod and Friends
I'd Rather Be Baking Cookies: A Collection of Recipes from Lisa MacLeod and Friends is a cookbook written by Canadian politician Lisa MacLeod, who is the member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for Nepean—Carleton...
.
Ignatieff supporter
In November 2008, Kinsella announced that he had returned to active involvement in the Liberal Party of Canada, and that he was working for leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff. In January 2009, Kinsella was revealed as the head of the Liberal Party's election war room.Sponsorship Program and Gomery Commission
During the Gomery CommissionGomery Commission
The Gomery Commission, formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, was a federal Canadian Royal Commission headed by the retired Justice John Gomery for the purpose of investigating the sponsorship scandal, which involved allegations of corruption...
's inquiry into the Sponsorship scandal
Sponsorship scandal
The sponsorship scandal, "AdScam", "Sponsorship" or Sponsorgate, is a scandal that came as a result of a Canadian federal government "sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec and involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006...
heard testimony that Kinsella, in his capacity as chief of staff to Minister of Public Works
Minister of Public Works (Canada)
The position of Minister of Public Works existed as part of the Cabinet of Canada from Confederation to 1995.As part of substantial governmental reorganization, the position was merged with that of the Minister of Supply and Services to create the position of Minister of Public Works and Government...
David Dingwall
David Dingwall
David Charles Dingwall, PC is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and civil servant.A lawyer by training, Dingwall was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1980 Canadian federal election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Cape Breton—East Richmond in Nova Scotia...
and at Dingwall's request, wrote a letter to the department's Deputy Minister, Ran Quail, requesting that bureaucrat Chuck Guité be appointed to review the government's advertising and communications strategy. Quail testified that he viewed the letter as political interference into civil service affairs, though both Dingwall and Kinsella characterized this letter as a request rather than a directive. A later memo from Kinsella to Guité, complaining that several polling contracts awarded by the Finance department did not follow proper guidelines, was cited by Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
leader Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
during the scandal as evidence that Prime Minister Paul Martin, who had been Finance Minister at the time the memo was written, was complicit in any misappropriation that took place. The memo dealt with $525,900 in contracts awarded to Liberal-friendly firm Earnscliffe Strategy Group.
Kinsella was a frequent critic of the Gomery Commission, which he called a "judicial circus" and biased against Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
's supporters in the Liberal Party. In June 2008, a judge of the Federal Court
Federal Court (Canada)
The Federal Court is a Canadian trial court that hears cases arising under certain areas of federal law. The Federal Court is a superior court with nationwide jurisdiction...
set aside Gomery's finding that Chrétien bore some responsibility for the scandal, concluding that Gomery showed signs of bias against Chrétien; in response, Kinsella claimed victory, took particular note of the judge's conclusion that Gomery "had a plan or checklist of the evidence that was expected and which was required in order to support pre-determined conclusions", and asserted that "the very epicentre of Gomery...has a golf course-sized hole at the centre of it". Kinsella has not denied writing any of the above-referenced memos.
Involvement in punk rock
In his youth, Kinsella was the bassist of the Canadian punk band, "The Hot NastiesHot Nasties
The Hot Nasties were a punk rock band from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They were of the first wave of Canadian punk rock and notably featured future Liberal Party of Canada strategist and lawyer Warren Kinsella on bass and vocals.-History:...
". In 2005, Kinsella wrote Fury's Hour: A (sort-of) Punk-Rock Manifesto (Random House, 2005), a history of the early days of punk.
In 2005, Kinsella founded a punk rock band named "Shit From Hell", which released a self-titled album later that year on Kicking Ass Records. The band consists of Kinsella (Bass, Vocals), Derek Raymaker (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Rolf Dinsdale (Guitar, Backing Vocals) and David Shiller (Drums). The band performed at Hamilton's Festival of Friends in August 2008 with Frankie Venom, the lead singer of legendary Canadian punk band Teenage Head. It was to be Venom's last public performance, as he died six weeks later, of cancer.
Kinsella wrote the song, Barney Rubble is My Double, featured on the Hot Nasties
Hot Nasties
The Hot Nasties were a punk rock band from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They were of the first wave of Canadian punk rock and notably featured future Liberal Party of Canada strategist and lawyer Warren Kinsella on bass and vocals.-History:...
long play cassette tape and the Shit From Hell CD. It was also covered by The Evaporator's
The Evaporators
The Evaporators is a Canadian punk rock band formed in 1986 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Nardwuar, its founding member, is known for interviewing politicians and celebrities.-History:...
on their Ripple Rock
Ripple Rock (album)
Ripple Rock is The Evaporators' third album. It was released in 2004 in Canada by Mint Records and Nardwuar Records and elsewhere by Alternative Tentacles. The vinyl contained a free copy of Thee Dublins' self-titled 7"...
album.
Writing
- Unholy Alliances (Lester, 1992)
- Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network ISBN 0-00-638051-4 (HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, 1997) - Party Favours (HarperCollins, 1997)
- Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics (Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 2001) - Fury's Hour: A (sort-of) Punk-Rock Manifesto (Random House, 2005)
- The War Room: Political Strategies for Business, NGOs, and Anyone Who Wants to Win (Dundurn Press, 2007)
Kinsella has also written commentary in most of Canada's major newspapers, including the Globe and Mail and the Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
. He was recently media columnist for the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
.
External links
- Warren Kinsella's website
- Daisy Consulting Group, Team
- Official website of Kinsella's punk rock band