New NDP Leader Avi Lewis is building up his team, tapping Peyton Veitch to serve as principal secretary.

In a post on LinkedIn, Veitch said he was “honoured” to join Lewis’ senior leadership team, and promised a comprehensive rebuild of the party, which posted its worst-ever showing in last spring’s election.

“We’re going to work with our caucus, labour, social movements and the grassroots to rebuild this party from the ground up,” he wrote, calling working on Lewis’ leadership campaign, the “thrill of a lifetime.”

Veitch was Lewis’ policy director during the leadership campaign, joining the team after nearly two years working for the Manitoba NDP government.

A former labour organizer, Veitch worked on the Hill from 2022 to 2024. Before that, he was a legislative assistant at Queen’s Park from 2018 to 2022.

And before we go further, we should note the big staffing news that broke earlier this week — Katy Merrifield is resigning as Conservative Party Pierre Poilievre’s communications director.

As the Canadian Press reported, Merrifield announced her departure in an email sent to the Conservative caucus Tuesday, adding her last day working in the Opposition Leader’s Office will be Friday.

The message says Micah Green will become the new communications director and Sam Lilly will be the new media relations director.

Merrifield says the promotions were her suggestion.

Elsewhere, Mary-Rose Brown is leaving her role as chief of staff to Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr for a position in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In a post on LinkedIn, she said she’d be joining the PMO as a senior advisor, and was “excited to keep working to advance the PM’s agenda to Build Canada Strong, and to keep pushing forward to build out Canada’s incredible defence sector.”

Brown has worked as chief of staff in public services and procurement, and as a senior advisor at the finance minister’s office.

Also on the move to the PMO — Lola Dandybaeva. She’s joining (well, re-joining) the prime minister’s team as the senior media advance.

She’s spent the past 10 months heading up media relations at Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s office.

Prior to that, Dandybaeva worked in PMO as a senior advisor for appointments and tour advance.

Finally, Mujtaba Hussain has joined International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu‘s office as a press secretary.

Hussain announced the news in a post on LinkedIn. He spent the past year as the press secretary and issues manager for Fuhr.

with files from the Canadian Press

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