There was a stir in social media last week when Prime Minister Mark Carney named Maia Johnson as his new Chief Operating Officer. Canadian mainstream media did not report on this significant staff announcement in the prime minister’s office any more than to reference innocuous information about a PMO staff shuffle that had been leaked to the Globe and Mail. As a result, most Canadians were provided neither the context nor the relevancy of the prime minister’s appointment. However, because it has a direct impact on Canada-U.S. relations at a time of heightened tension between Ottawa and Washington, there is ample reason to detail Ms. Johnson’s promotion as well as her associated network of American politicos who are advising Carney.
Earlier last week, news trickled out that the Globe and Mail was given a scoop that the prime minister had promoted a staff member to a newly made position within the PMO to replace a key adviser, Tom Pitfield, who was awarded a Senate position. Maia Johnson, who was serving as a senior adviser on Canada–U.S. relations, was now to assume the new position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Carney.
The role itself has never existed within the PMO; it is presumably reflective of a senior role in a corporate management structure. Yet, many of the management duties of a COO are found in those duties normally performed by a political chief of staff. The PMO has not published anything clarifying Johnson’s job description, so it is uncertain how her authority will be divided from that of the existing Chief of Staff Marc-André Blanchard.
Aside from the fact the prime minister has created a powerful, senior advisor role to manage operations in his office, what makes this especially newsworthy is Maia Johnson is an American political strategist and a veteran Democrat Party operative who has made a career of campaigning with the who’s who, seniormost U.S. Democrat politicians.
Johnson has close ties to Hillary Clinton and served as her director of scheduling in her 2016 presidential campaign against U.S. President Donald Trump. She also worked in the subsequent Democrat presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She also had a role in the political data and strategy company Hawkfish, an extension of former New York City mayor and Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. At Hawkfish she was supporting Democrat candidates and organizations during the 2020 American election cycle.
Her association with Bloomberg also had Johnson provide research and logistics support for initiatives tied to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). This had her working GFANZ’s financial networks and crossing paths with Bloomberg’s co-chair partner, Carney. But this would not be the first time she worked with Canada’s future prime minister. Johnson supported Carney with research and writing assignments while he served as the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.
Johnson was first hired by Carney’s PMO in February 2026 as a senior adviser responsible for U.S. stakeholder strategy, presumably to assist the prime minister and staff with outreach to American political, business, and institutional contacts who might assist with better U.S. relations. She was already familiar with Liberals in Ottawa, as records show she volunteered on Carney’s leadership campaign in 2024 and early 2025, flying from New York to provide strategic advice.
Given her knowledge and work experience with Carney and his financial and corporate networks, it is highly likely Johnson was promoted by the prime minister as a result of a strong personal trust factor. But the obvious difficulty with such a promotion at the nerve centre of Canada’s political system is the fact that Carney just handed ultimate day-to-day responsibly for his government to an American, a fierce partisan, whose beliefs and allegiances are offside with the current American administration. She is well known and connected with American Democrats, and tightest with Trump’s political adversaries. Although she may be known as somewhat of a “ghost political operative” in Canada, she is well known in Washington D.C. circles, Republican networks included.
And it is more than the political optics at the heart of the problem with Johnson’s appointment. In centralizing his political power around a corporate-style PMO structure, Carney has made one of his lead point persons an individual with no Canadian roots or points of reference. In giving an American influence over Canada’s relations with the U.S., it poses inherent risks of divided loyalty between the countries. Even more troubling, Johnson has many loyalties to global finance and political networks from New York to Davos, so the pertinent question is whether it will be Canadians’ best interests that will weigh heaviest in her moments of decision. On this point, Sue Kelland-Dyer of LUMEN Reports observed, “This case reflects a deeper problem: a Prime Minister whose worldview and inner circle lean heavily internationalist (Davos, climate finance, U.S. Democratic networks) at the expense of domestic sovereignty and transparency. In a time of trade tensions, border issues, and national unity challenges, Canadians expect the PMO to be run by experienced Canadians with unquestioned loyalty to national interests.”
Now let’s consider those who Johnson is connected with south of the border, who are working in the prime minister’s backrooms, and let’s start with John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager for her 2016 presidential campaign. Podesta is a Democrat warhorse, who served as chief of staff to president Bill Clinton and, since, served both presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Until 2024, he managed the Biden administration’s $375-billion climate fund. Podesta is closely tied with the Liberal Party’s consummate insider Gerald Butts and it was through their working relationship that he was brought into Carney’s political operations. Much like Johnson, these days Podesta would rather remain invisible in the backrooms, but also like Johnson, he is a Democrat operative who is notoriously well known among the political circles of Washington.
Podesta has provided opportunities for Carney to advance his international agendas. Aside from his Democratic Party work, Podesta is the main proponent of the Centre for American Progress, a progressive advocacy organization that manages annual Global Progress Action Summits. Recall in October 2025, a summit was held in London, U.K. and \ Carney was showcased with then-prime minister Kier Starmer discussing building international networks outside of American influence. In May 2026, the Global Progress Action Summit was held in Toronto. Again, Carney was showcased speaking about the rise of the New World Order. That night Podesta helped facilitate the private meeting for Carney with Barack Obama and Alex Soros – the scion who is following in his father’s footsteps as being one of the Democrat Party’s largest financial contributors.
That Toronto huddle between Carney, Obama, and Soros was followed up a few weeks ago with another private huddle in Nova Scotia. The second meeting involved federal industry minister Mélanie Joly, Alex Soros and his wife Huma Abedin, and Frank McKenna, who currently is the deputy chair of TD Bank Group and the chair of Brookfield Asset Management. The strands of the Democrat web overlap here and, notably, Maia Johnson is a central figure who has relations with all the main characters who surround Carney. Certainly, the prime minister’s new COO knows Podesta well, but another of Johnson’s close relationships is with Huma Abedin – which will bode well for the PMO’s lines of communication with the Soros family.
Finally, no review of American influence on Carney and his PMO is complete without mention of the Eurasia Group, a New York consulting firm where Diana Fox Carney is gainfully employed as an expert on climate initiatives and green policies. Gerald Butts works beside Mrs. Carney and continues to be a bridge between the Ottawa Liberals and American Democrats, as well as a conduit for the U.S. firm in securing Canadian government contracts. Another tie-in is Evan Solomon, who worked as a publisher within the Eurasia Group and is now the Canadian cabinet minister overseeing the country’s AI initiatives. Finally, there is the owner of the firm, Ian Bremmer, who is an influencer on the global stage, someone who never misses an opportunity to bolster the reputation of Carney. (It should not go unmentioned that the Eurasia Group has been a beneficiary of the Soros family).
As a concluding thought, Canadians should be curious as to why mainstream media has not bothered to connect the dots regarding the American Democrat influence being wielded from within Carney’s backroom. One can only imagine the headlines if a Conservative prime minister installed an American Republican political operative in charge of the PMO. Where is the outrage over “importing American-style politics” with the fiercely partisan Maia Johnson and her tightly woven web of relations south of the border? Where are the questions about Canada’s national sovereignty? More importantly, where are the questions about Carney hiring someone of the calibre of Johnson when he is expected to reach an understanding with the American Republican administration?
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
