{"id":2356,"date":"2017-08-03T16:06:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/?post_type=cu_people&#038;p=2356"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:08:26","slug":"laura-kurkimaki","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/people\/laura-kurkimaki\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Kurkimaki"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura brings substantial experience in public affairs, campaigns, and advocacy. She supports clients in a wide range of industries including financial services, transportation, labour issues, healthcare, energy, and clean technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to joining McMillan Vantage, Laura served in a senior role at another Ottawa-based public affairs firm. She has held several roles with federal and provincial Conservative parties, including at Conservative Party headquarters and as an Issues Manager in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office. Most recently she was Principal Secretary to former Conservative Party Leader and Leader of the Official Opposition, Hon. Erin O\u2019Toole, and served as Deputy National Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party of Canada during the 2021 federal election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her spare time, Laura serves on Laurentian University\u2019s board of governors. From 2018-2022, she served as an elected member of the Ontario PC Party Executive as 8th Vice President. In 2017, she was named one of PR in Canada\u2019s Top 40 Under 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in Political Science and a master\u2019s degree in Political Management from Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Completing the Political Management Master\u2019s program helped me further develop the specific skills required to strive in a political environment. With practical writing assignments in each class, I was able to grow my professional writing skills which allowed me to hit the ground running when I began in the private sector after working in government, as well as in later roles. Being a one year program, MPM is an effective tool to help move you to the next level in your career.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Last Revision: March 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6804,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Laura","cu_people_last_name":"Kurkimaki","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[34,52],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-2356","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni","cu_people_type-alumni-graduated-2009-2013"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Senior Vice President at McMillan Vantage","cu_people_degree":"MPM\/12","cu_building":false,"cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"none","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6806,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2356\/revisions\/6806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}