Gordon Ashworth was listed in the 1983 (June)-1984 Government phone directories as Senior Advisor in the Operations and Plans section of the PMO.
According to an organizational chart found in this sub-series, Ashworth reported directly to the Principal Secretary. He was assisted by a secretary and was responsible for an additional twelve (12) staff divided among six sections of work. These sections included, Youth, Nominations, Party Liaison, Travel, Invitations, and Atlantic. The PMO tasks as listed below complement Ashworth's position as Senior Advisor of Operations and Plans, and would suggest that the focus of the PMO for 1983-1984 was that of a political agenda aimed at preparing the Liberal Party for a federal election.
In the document entitled, PMO Tasks 1983-1984, Ashworth's responsibilities are listed as:
-To support the Government's efforts to improve relations with key groups which form its coalition of support between 1982 and 1984, and to foster permanent linkages with these groups
-To support the development and implementation of a plan for improving the Government's relations with Canada's religious leaders
-To support the development of coherent regional strategies for the Government in order to retain its base of support for 1984
-To support the development and implementation of a regional/seat strategy for the Prairies
-To support the development and implementation of a regional/seat strategy for British Columbia
-To bring Caucus members effectively into the development of strategies and plans for key target groups
-To support the implementation of measures to improve the financing systems and operations of the Liberal Party
-To help ensure the Liberal Party has an adequate computer-based system for knowing who its members and potential supporters are and communicating effectively with them
-To develop a system of constituency agents/organizers across Canada to support the ongoing work of the Liberal Party including liaison with election readiness committee
This sub-series is arranged into the following three main blocks:
Correspondence and Memorandum
This group of files are arranged in chronological order.
Subject files
There are two kinds of subject files, coded subject files, which were part of a filing system and are filed by numeric code, and subject files which are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Some of the subjects include, youth, visits and trips, federal-provincial relations, communications, the economy, and the Prime Minister's farewell to politics.
Clippings
These clippings are from newsletters, newspapers, publications, largely from 1983. The subject matter varies, but an obvious portion pertains to the Liberal Party and issues affecting the federal image.
The Gordon Ashworth Staff sub-series relates to other PMO staff who were listed in the document, PMO Tasks 1983-84, and for whom there are staff sub-series during this 1983-84 period, for example, Denise Chong and David Crenna (MG 26 O 19). As well, this sub-series relates to the Planning Office series (MG 26 O 15) as Gordon Ashworth was the Head of this section of the PMO.
