PC’s tapping of controversial conservative strategist sparks fear, ire

Social justice advocates in the province are sounding the alarm over the Progressive Conservative Party’s decision to hire a controversial conservative strategist to oversee the PC’s transition into government.

On Oct. 22 Premier-designate Tony Wakeham announced his four-member “transition team,” which he said is “coordinating detailed briefings with the public service, aligning priorities, and planning staffing to ensure we hit the ground running.”

The team includes former PC cabinet ministers Ross Wiseman and Darin King, former public servant Colleen Janes, and Ottawa-based conservative strategist Steve Outhouse.

Outhouse previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Official Opposition in Ottawa under the Erin O’Toole Conservatives, as campaign manager for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party in that province’s 2023 election, and as a campaign manager for former PC Premier Blaine Higgs during New Brunswick’s 2024 election.

“Together, this team will help guide the transition, ensure continuity of services, and prepare the new government to deliver on its commitments,” Wakeham said in his Oct. 22 statement, adding: “In the coming weeks we will name a cabinet, begin assembling our senior team, and launch the work required to meet the challenges ahead.”

Though Outhouse typically keeps his personal beliefs close to his chest, the former Baptist minister’s track record of helping social conservative governments win elections is leading to anger and concern in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Outhouse appointment ‘extremely concerning’

Anna Kean of St. John’s responded to news of Outhouse’s involvement in the PC transition team by writing to Wakeham to say that Outhouse’s presence in NL provincial politics is “extremely concerning to all of us,” she wrote in an Oct. 27 social media post that has been shared almost 200 times.

“Mr. Outhouse has held senior roles in governments and campaigns across Canada that prioritized divisive ‘culture-war’ issues — particularly around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and 2SLGBTQ+ rights,” Kean continues in the letter. “Those battles have harmed gender-diverse children and their families elsewhere, eroded trust in institutions, and distracted from the real work of improving health care, affordability, and economic opportunity. Bringing [Outhouse] into a senior advisory role raises troubling questions about the social direction of your incoming government.”

Kean urged Wakeham, who is scheduled to be sworn in as premier Wednesday, to “reconsider [Outhouse’s] appointment outright.”

If Wakeham keeps Outhouse, Kean wants the incoming premier to “publicly commit to protecting 2SLGBTQ+ rights, maintaining DEI policies, and ensuring evidence-based decision-making — to make clear that divisive, regressive agendas have no place in your government.”

Wakeham and the PC Party ran their election campaign under the slogan “For All of Us” and committed to inclusivity in their platform, noting “a society must be equitable and inclusive, where people are embraced for their rich diversity, experiences and perspectives. We must cultivate a healthy environment where everyone feels welcomed, valued, and heard, where diversity is celebrated and where the doors are wide open to all. Everyone must feel safe, secure, and have resources to thrive.”

For a conservative political party, the Newfoundland and Labrador PCs are comparatively socially progressive. Wakeham marched in this year’s St. John’s Pride Parade alongside Torngat Mountains MHA Lela Evans, who is openly gay.

That’s why some are confused about the party’s decision to hire an advisor with strong ties to right-wing governments like the Smith and Higgs administrations. 

Outhouse’s Facebook profile states he served as Chief of Staff to Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre. He also led two campaigns for Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis.

“Having someone who has been part of movements that have put people’s rights and liberties at risk is terrifying,” says Laurabel Mba, a diversity, equity and inclusion advocate in St. John’s who ran for the NDP in the recent provincial election.

“The provincial PCs were elected because they were seen to be progressive—emphasis on the word progressive,” she says. “But when they are hiring someone who doesn’t hold those progressive sentiments, I think it makes people of this province a little bit nervous.”

Then Premier Higgs came under fire last year after hiring Outhouse as principal secretary in his office while paying him to run his party’s election campaign, meaning Outhouse collected a taxpayer salary while working as a paid partisan. 

Last winter, as first reported by the New Brunswick Media Co-op, far-right media outlet Rebel News sent out a sponsored email on behalf of the Higgs’ leadership campaign promoting a sit-down interview Higgs did with Rebel. Though the email was distributed by Rebel, it was signed by Outhouse, giving the impression he authored the message.

Instead of focusing on the substance of Rebel’s interview with Higgs, the email used inflammatory and divisive language to take aim at progressive people in New Brunswick. With the subject line, “Rebel News Sponsor | New Brunswick Leftists Attack Rebel News!,” the message from Outhouse focused on public backlash around Higgs’ decision to give Rebel an interview.

“According to these Leftists, speaking with Rebel News was taking the PC Party of New Brunswick ‘lower and lower,’ and was alt-right, extreme right, too American, etc. Choose your favourite leftist talking point and it was used to attack Premier Higgs,” the email reads.

“If you want to re-elect a leader who’s not afraid to stand up to extremist, woke activists and believes that independent media are legitimate organizations, you can help Premier Higgs TODAY.”

Outhouse did not respond to The Independent’s interview requests and a representative from Wakeham’s office said the premier-designate was not available for an interview.

Calls for clarity

Alex Marland, a political scientist at Acadia University who has studied politics in Newfoundland and Labrador, says it’s not unusual for a party to bring in someone from outside the province to help with a government transition, explaining that “such people draw on their knowledge of executive-level governance to advise on machinery of government considerations, such as vetting and training potential ministers and senior staff.”

Marland says such workers are “not engaged in policy or messaging because the government has not been formed yet,” and that “[m]ost people brought in to assist with a government transition cease being involved once the new government is up and running.”

The scope and details of Outhouse’s role are unclear, as is the extent to which he could be employed with the PC Party or the provincial government beyond the transition. There is a job posting on his company Right Recruiter’s website for the incoming government’s director of communications, a person who will report “directly to the Premier and Chief of Staff” and “oversee all strategic messaging, media relations, issues management, and public engagement activities to ensure clear, consistent, and proactive communication with the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Job applicants are asked to submit their resumes directly to Outhouse via his private company email. 

Memorial University Associate Professor Jennifer Selby says Wakeham’s decision to appoint Outhouse to his transition team “raises serious concerns about the future of inclusion and equality in our province, in a moment in which a lot of folks are struggling with unemployment and underemployment and the rising cost of living.

“People are already scared and see what could be coming,” she says. “Outhouse has a history of work alongside premiers […] who have led divisive politics aimed at transgender and abortion rights that could undermine the province’s commitment to 2SLGBTQ+ rights and evidence-based policymaking.”

In her letter to Wakeham, Kean asked for “clear, on-the-record assurances from you personally” on a number of questions around safety and support for gender-diverse students in the K-12 system, healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse individuals, and DEI initiatives and training across government and crown corporations.

Like Kean, Selby also wants to see Wakeham clear the air in a public way. “I hope that, in response to the concerns that’ve been shared, Wakeham will clearly affirm that his government will protect human rights and reject agendas that threaten safety in our communities and unity across our province,” she says.

Colt Politte, executive director of Quadrangle NL, an organization which advocates for gender equity, says Outhouse’s associations with far-right governments in Canada is “concerning” but that their organization is taking a wait-and-see approach to the situation. 

“We know that Newfoundland Labrador has one of the highest rates of gender diversity in Canada,” he says. “So the rhetoric and the policy and the push we had against queer, and especially trans communities in other parts of Canada—that’s not something that we would ever accept or stand for here.”

Colt says Quadrangle is eager to work with the incoming government, “because we really would love to see that vision they put in their [platform] come forward. And we would love to offer any support Quadrangle could offer to help them build that kind of vision that also supports the queer and trans people of the province.”