Bar Talk
Mike Harris, the former Conservative premier of Ontario, is switching law firms, joining former political rival David Peterson at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP as a business development adviser.
Mr. Harris, a former golf pro and teacher who is not a lawyer, had been working as a strategic adviser to clients of the Toronto offices of Goodmans LLP.
Mr. Peterson - who as a Liberal premier faced Mr. Harris in the 1990 election - said he had helped lure the former Tory leader, whom he counts as a personal friend, to Cassels. Now, he joked, he needs to convert Mr. Harris to the Liberal cause. "Michael and I see the world in different ways, no question about it," Mr. Peterson said. "… I'm not going to give up. Maybe I can turn him into a Liberal … but that's not the reason we're doing this."
Mr. Harris said he is excited to work with Mr. Peterson: "It's a firm that's growing and expanding. They're aggressive."
Mr. Harris, 65, is leaving a firm he used to share with yet another former Ontario politician: Bob Rae, the NDP premier he deposed in 1995. Mr. Rae, now the Liberal MP for Toronto Centre, left Goodmans when he jumped back into federal politics.
Mr. Harris added that he and Mr. Rae don't see much of each other: "We kind of were on different floors, different files."
bartalk@globeandmail.com