A long-time communications specialist with a range of public and private sector experience, Meredith McDonald will help expand Canadian Strategy Group’s public affairs offerings.
Meredith McDonald has joined Canadian Strategy Group as the Senior Manager of Communications. She brings over 17 years of wide-ranging experience to the position, including four and a half years as a speechwriter to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“As a born and raised Albertan, I’m thrilled to be joining the province’s leading public affairs team. Through its first-rate government relations, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications services, Canadian Strategy Group is helping shape the conservations that are going to drive Alberta’s future. I can’t wait to start playing my own role in this important work,” McDonald said.
Canadian Strategy Group is a Western Canadian public affairs practice founded by Hal Danchilla and Michael Lohner. Cathy Kiss, a leading government relations and communications strategist, recently joined as partner. CSG helps regional, national and international clients achieve critical policy, funding and regulatory outcomes.
As provinces and municipalities prepare for political change, decarbonizing economies and constrained budgets, Canadian Strategy Group is adding expertise and broadening perspectives to help clients manage expectations and risk.
“We’re delighted to welcome Meredith to the CSG team,” said Cathy Kiss. “Her diverse communications experience, both inside government and out, along with her political background will serve our clients well. She’s skilled at distilling and amplifying messages to ensure they not only get heard, but help change minds.”
Meredith will lead strategic communications for Canadian Strategy Group, creating strategies and materials that help clients achieve their goals.
For more information about Canadian Strategy Group, please contact:
Cathy Kiss
780.886.2760
[email protected]
Biography
Meredith McDonald is a communications specialist and researcher with over 17 years of experience. She has an exceptional ability to create clear, powerful content, shaped for specific consuming audiences, from complex source materials.
You name it, Meredith has likely written it, including everything from speeches and news releases, to panel reports and policy papers, to briefing notes and op-eds. Her analysis pieces on public policy, government, and politics have been published by the Calgary Herald, Winnipeg Free Press, the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies.
Meredith got her professional start in politics, working on Stephen Harper’s successful leadership bid for the Canadian Alliance. Since then, she has worked on four national Conservative Party campaigns.
In 2003, she moved to Ottawa to work as a researcher and writer in the Official Opposition Leader’s Office. Following the newly united Conservative Party’s historic victory in 2006, she became a speechwriter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
After four and a half years in the Prime Minister’s Office, she served as the senior communications advisor to Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent. In this role, she provided communications support to the Minister at a number of high-profile gatherings, including meetings of the African Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
In 2011, she returned to Alberta and founded Amplify Ink, a communications and research company that provided services to a range of public and private sector clients. More recently, Meredith’s love of adventure and travel took her to Yukon, where she worked for two and a half years for the territorial government.
Meredith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Calgary.
