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Nigel Wright, Former Harper Chief of Staff and Onex Executive, Dies at 62

Tributes highlighted his Onex leadership alongside a PMO tenure defined by the Duffy payment later ruled an ethics breach, not a crime.

Overview

  • Onex announced Wright’s death on Tuesday and did not disclose a cause.
  • Wright spent nearly three decades at Onex, led its London office, and was praised by CEO Bobby LeBlanc and chair Gerry Schwartz.
  • He served as Stephen Harper’s chief of staff from 2011 to 2013 before departing during the Senate expenses controversy.
  • In 2013 he personally paid more than $90,000 to Senator Mike Duffy, which the federal ethics commissioner later found breached conflict-of-interest rules.
  • The RCMP said there was no evidence to support criminal charges against Wright, as condolences poured in from Harper, Conservative figures, and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.