Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie (born July 25, 1967) is a Canadian political scientist and was Chief of Staff in Stephen Harper's Prime Minister's Office from Harper's ascension to the position of prime minister until July 1, 2008. The news that he was leaving the post came days before the release of a report on the Clinton/Obama NAFTA leak controversy. He is currently a Strategic Advisor at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC.

Early life and education

Brodie attended high school at the University of Toronto Schools. He earned a BA in political science from McGill University in Montreal, and an MA and a PhD from the University of Calgary.

In 1997, he became assistant professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario in London; promotion to tenured associate professor came in 2002. At Western, he specialized in Canadian politics, particularly Canadian conservative politics and law and politics.

His book Friends of the Court: The Privileging of Interest Group Litigants in Canada (State University of New York Press, 2002), a revision of his doctoral dissertation, discussed the treatment of interest groups seeking leave to intervene before the Supreme Court of Canada. Friends posited that the court had come to favor a preferred set of interest groups, and explored the legal theory by which this had come about.

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970's with their debut album Three Imaginary Boys; this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and new wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980's, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music was a staple of the emerging gothic rock genre.

After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the single "Let's Go to Bed" released the same year, Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music and their popularity increased as the decade wore on, with songs like "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love". The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004 and have released thirteen studio albums, ten EPs and over thirty singles during their career.