James S. Deacey

Jamie Deacey is the founder and President of Association House. He has been involved with government relations work since the late 1960's, working as Executive Assistant to the President of the National Indian Brotherhood, followed by stints as Executive Director of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and Special Assistant to the Minister of Indian Affairs. From 1974 to 1979 he was Executive Assistant and Special Policy Advisor to the Honourable Alastair Gillespie, Minister of Energy. Mr. Deacey then accepted positions as Assistant to the Chairman of Westcoast Energy and Director of the Canadian Petroleum Association during the time of the National Energy Policy. Following this, he became Assistant to the Chairman of Public Affairs Resource Group (now Hill & Knowlton Canada) and President of its communications company. He began his own consulting practice in 1987, and founded Association House in 1989.

Mr. Deacey remained politically active during this period as Chairman of Communications for Don Johnston in his 1984 bid for the Liberal Leadership, as Communications Chair for Premier David Peterson in the 1987 election and as Communications Chair for Paul Martin in the 1990 Liberal Leadership. More recently he has been responsible for broad based fundraising for Mr. Martin’s campaign and Advertising Chair for Premier McGuinty. He has kept his hand in journalism by serving as an off/on-air editorial consultant and as an on-air commentator to CBC and CTV at many major party conventions and elections since 1979. He has lectured at several universities including Queen’s, Carleton and CDMC.

Sean Durkan

Sean Durkan is retained as Association House’s Vice President, Media, and has been with the company since April, 2001.

He is a 25-year veteran of the daily newspaper business, and was national political bureau chief and syndicated political columnist for Canada’s second largest chain of daily papers, Sun Media, until stepping down in January, 2001 to become a news and media consultant.

His career began in his native Britain with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, where he was one the youngest apprentices in the country to pass the national training program and qualify as a senior journalist. His five siblings and their extended families all live in England and Ireland.

Recruited in 1981 by the Calgary Sun, he spent seven years in Alberta with that paper in various reporting, column writing and editing roles before transferring to Ottawa to cover federal politics in 1988.

In addition to his media communications consulting work, Sean continues to do some media work, serving as a correspondent for the British national newspaper The Daily Mail, providing occasional political commentaries and analysis for radio and television, and writing the weekly Heard on the Hill column for the Hill Times. He is a former director of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery and the National Press Club.
Sean and his wife Anne, an Ottawa native, have two young children.

Gord McIntosh

Gord McIntosh spent 30 years in journalism, working in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Web, before becoming a consultant in communications strategy and government relations in Ottawa in 2000.

In his journalism career, he won two National Newspaper awards, spent 14 years on Parliament Hill and was managing editor at a daily newspaper.

In various roles over those years, he was president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, national vice-president of the Canadian Newspaper Guild and president of the National Press Club.

As a senior parliamentary reporter with The Canadian Press, Mr. McIntosh covered economic and business issues, all political parties, international affairs and the lobbying industry.

In addition to consulting, Mr. McIntosh also works as a speechwriter and media trainer.