Source: Winnipeg Free Press

LONGTIME Conservative party strategist Marni Larkin is the newest member of the CBC board of directors.

Larkin was appointed to the board June 21.

"Ms. Larkin has experience as the owner and president of two small businesses in Winnipeg," said James Maunder, spokesman for Heritage Minister James Moore. "Her community involvement and volunteer experience will be a tremendous asset to CBC's board and we wish her well in her position."

Larkin herself did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Her appointment did not sit well with Conservative opponents who see it as another example of government patronage.

"Appointments should be based on merit, not the party-membership card you carry in your wallet," said NDP MP Pat Martin.

He said he's also concerned a government that is against the CBC is putting its own strategists on the CBC board.

"I'd be concerned if I were the CBC if they're stacking the board with a partisan political operative."

Larkin looms large behind the scenes in Tory circles in Manitoba.

She was the Manitoba member of the National Council for a time. She ran federally for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1997, and also worked in the provincial government of former premier Gary Filmon.

She was a significant factor behind the successful Conservative campaigns in Winnipeg South Centre and Elmwood-Transcona in 2011. She also ran Mayor Sam Katz's successful re-election campaign in 2010.

She took a hit however as one of the co-chairs of the unsuccessful provincial Tory campaign in 2011 that failed to earn a single additional seat for the party. However, it did see major gains in vote share for the PCs.

Larkin owns the company Boom Done Next, a marketing and sales company that did some work for local Conservative candidates in the last federal election.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 29, 2012 A11

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