2012 INDUCTEE
ALLAN GREGG STRATEGIES
Allan Gregg is one of Canada’s most recognized and respected senior research professionals and social commentators.
From 1979 through 1993 Allan was known as the official pollster of the Progressive Conservative Party and participated in over 50 central election campaigns on three continents.
In 1995, he co-founded The Strategic Counsel, a research partnership he left in 2007. That year, he set out on his own to form Allan Gregg Strategies, offering high-end, value added, research-based consulting and communications advice to private and public sector clients.
At the same time, he returned to roots and assumed the position of Chairman of Harris/Decima, a company he founded almost 30 years earlier that has recently merged with the fastest growing research firm in the world.
Allan is a pioneer in the integration of consulting, public-opinion research, public affairs and communications. He not only has an intimate knowledge of the dynamics of policy-making but also a deep understanding of cultural change and the communications processes necessary to forge a public consensus around government and business initiatives. Much sought after for his analysis and as a public speaker, he is widely published and quoted. For over a decade, he was a regular participant on CBC’s “At Issue” panel on Thursday nights , and is the current host of the popular and respected TVO talk show – Allan Gregg In Conversation With — as well as a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines.
Allan is also an entrepreneur with diverse interests. He was one of the founding shareholders of Canada’s children’s network, YTV, the Chairman of Toronto Film Festival, the Chair of the Walrus Foundation (publisher of 2007 Magazine of the Year, “The Walrus”) and has executive produced documentary television as well as recordings by Canadian artists such as The Tragically Hip, The Watchmen and Big Wreck. Corporately, he serves on General Motors of Canada’s Advisory Board and the Bank of Montreal’s Advisory Council on Retirement.
Allan first came to national attention as the national campaign secretary of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada successful effort in the 1979 federal election.
Soon after that campaign, Gregg founded Decima Research, a joint polling/public relations firm. The company became the Conservative party’s polling firm, and Gregg played an important role in the 1984 election when the PC Party was led by Brian Mulroney.
He rose to greater prominence in the 1988 election where he handled communications and polling for the PC Party. Once an advocate for negative campaigning (since reconsidered), he directed the famed “bridge bombing” attack on Liberal leader John Turner that was designed to break the bridge linking anti-free trade voters to Turner. The offensive was a success, Turner’s popularity dropped, and the Tories were re-elected.
He founded a record label, The Song Corp., and was co-manager of the Tragically Hip. He also served a five year stint as president of the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2012, he was named as a Adjunct Professor to Carleton’s Schools of Public Administration and Political Management.
