Paulhus-Cates launches Narrative XPR’s public affairs practice; Former minister O’Regan joins Global Public Affairs
Toronto-based public relations firm Narrative XPR has hired Morgan Paulhus-Cates to lead its newly launched public affairs practice.
“I’m starting it with a founder’s mindset [and] I’m going to be directly involved in working with clients,” Paulhus-Cates told The Lobby Monitor during a Jan. 23 interview.
“Effective influence is more than just traditional lobbying and media, they are still important…but it really revolves around sustained momentum, trusted relationships, and timely delivery of evidence based insights,” she continued. “Narrative XPR is already really strong at building the reputation of their clients over a sustained period of time with a number of different stakeholders, and now we’re able to include government, regulatory organizations and others that influence the spaces that the businesses we work with are operating within.”
The newly launched practice will tap into Narrative’s existing clients, which includes Visa, Gowling WLG, and Salesforce, but newcomers are always welcome as Paulhaus-Cates looks forward to working with customers from across a variety of industries.
“We feel that the new model of public affairs is more principled, it’s transparent, it’s ethical, it’s about working in partnership with stakeholders to counter misinformation, which is a huge issue in the environment right now,” she said about the perspective she aims to bring to the new practice. “Building understanding, co-creating solutions to problems together with our stakeholders and really standing up to the public scrutiny that is now so pervasive because consumers, decision makers, and politicians have instant access to information.”
Paulhus-Cates told The Lobby Monitor that she believes there needs to be a “really credible way of communicating with all of our stakeholders.”
“We want to deliver work that is meaningful and benefits communities and society and we know the companies that we work with want the same thing as well,” she added.
Paulhus-Cates noted that she will not be focusing on conducting direct lobbying herself, but the firm may employ lobbyists for any files that require the service.
Prior to joining Narrative, Paulhus-Cates was running an independent strategic communications consultancy that she ran between March 2024 and January 2026.
She also spent nearly two years in Singapore leading GCI Health’s operations as deputy managing director. She held the role June 2022 and February 2024.
Between November 2019 and May 2022, Paulhus-Cates was responsible for creating and leading Crestview Strategy’s strategic communications practice. During her time with Crestview she held the titles of national practice lead and vice president of strategic communications.
Familiar faces, new roles on Queen Street
Trudeau-era cabinet minister Seamus O’Regan joined Global Public Affairs as a strategic council to assist the firm with strategic communications and federal and provincial political strategy, according to the firm’s Feb. 4 LinkedIn post.
O’Regan first became a federal MP after winning the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of St. John’s South—Mount Pearl during the 2015 election.
He first joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet in 2017 as the associate minister of national defence. He went on to hold several other cabinet positions including minister of veterans affairs, minister of Indigenous services, minister of natural resources, and minister of labour. He resigned from the cabinet in July 2024 from his role as minister of labour and seniors. O’Regan did not seek to contest his seat in the 2025 federal election.
In addition to this new role at Global, O’Regan is also a member of multiple boards of directors for companies and organizations such as Institute for Research on Public Policy, Co. Innovation Centre, and Power Metallic.
Enterprise Canada has hired Erika Meekes as director of strategic communications, according to a LinkedIn post by Meekes.
Prior to joining Enterprise, Meekes was the senior global thought leadership manager at technology company Geotab. She joined the company in December 2022.
Meekes was also the director of public relations at Music Canada between September 2019 and December 2022. She had experience working for the Government of Ontario where she spent a six months as the director of communications to Progressive Conservative MPP Greg Rickford, during his time as minister of energy, mines, northern development and minister of Indigenous affairs, and a year as a communications strategist in the office of premier between 2018 and 2019.
Liam Daly left Sussex Strategy Group to take on the role of vice president at MacMillan Vantage, according to a LinkedIn post by the firm.
During his time at Sussex, Daly was a senior associate of federal government relations, a role he held between June 2021 and January 2026. He initially joined Sussex in November 2016 as an associate and left the role in November 2018.
Daly was also the manager of public affairs at the Canadian Construction Association from November 2018 to June 2021. He worked as a legislative assistant for Liberal MP Sean Fraser between January 2016 and August 2016.
