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- Warren Kinsella should not be confused with Canadian author W. P. Kinsella.
J. Warren Kinsella, LL.B (born August 1960 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Toronto-based Canadian lawyer, author, musician, political consultant and commentator.
Kinsella is counsel to and a principal of the Toronto consultancy firm Navigator. He worked as a strategy advisor in the Canadian federal Liberal Party's 1993 election campaign "task force", as a special assistant to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and as chief of staff to a federal cabinet minister.
Politics
Kinsella's often controversial work as a political strategist has led to his being labelled a "Liberal attack dog", and the "James Carville" and "Prince of Darkness" of Canadian politics. Kinsella showed his political savvy during the 2000 federal election. During the run-up to the vote he appeared on the CTV television show Canada AM brandishing a purple Barney dinosaur to discredit Stockwell Day's creationist beliefs. He ran as a Liberal candidate in the 1997 federal election in the riding of North Vancouver where he lost by a margin of over 9,000. In 1998, Kinsella moved to Toronto and became a partner in a Bay Street law firm.
In the 2003 Toronto municipal election, Kinsella was a senior campaign strategist for conservative mayoral candidate John Tory. He is a lobbyist for, among others, the Ontario Funeral Directors Association.
Kinsella was a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and criticized Paul Martin for challenging Chrétien's leadership. He criticized the Liberal campaign several times in the 2004 federal election, and 2006 election .
Use of Misplaced Pages to attack Kinsella
Repeatedly, this entry has been used to suggest that Kinsella played a role in the Canadian sponsorship scandal. Despite the fact that the sponsorship program came into being two years after Kinsella left government - and despite the fact Kinsella has successfully sued a writer who made a similar allegation. Kinsella became involved in a dispute with one of his own online critics, blogger Mark Bourrie, filing a $600,000 libel suit over a post by Bourrie regarding Kinsella's role in the affair . Kinsella's lawyer argued, "The way in which it was written leaves it to the reader to conclude that Mr. Kinsella was a participant in the kickback scandal and he was not". Bourrie issued a apology: "The manner in which my January 14, 2006 blog entry was worded made it seem that Mr. Kinsella had been a party to illegal conduct when this was clearly not the case. I apologize without reservation to Mr. Kinsella for that error on my part."
Writing
Kinsella has written five books: Unholy Alliances (Lester, 1992); Web of Hate (HarperCollins, 1994; Party Favours (HarperCollins, 1997); Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics (Random House, 2001); Fury's Hour: A (sort-of) Punk-Rock Manifesto (Random House), 2005.
Kinsella has also been a newspaper and magazine columnist and op-ed writer; he is currently media columnist for the National Post. In late 2000, he established a weblog, "Latest Musings".
Personal
The son of respected physician Douglas Kinsella. He and his wife have four children.
See also
External links
- Warren Kinsella's website
- His weblog
- Mark Bourrie's web page
- Audio interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA's Joseph Planta