The series comprises memoranda, reports, correspondence, notes, speeches, grey literature, selected clippings, and other records relating to Coutts's role as Principal Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, both in the Prime Minister's Office, from August 1975 to June1979 and again from March 1980 to 1981, and in the office of the Leader of the Opposition, from June 1979 to March 1980. The series reflects the full complexity and challenges of Coutts's many responsibilities in an expanding and evolving PMO, including his role as a key policy and strategic advisor to the Prime Minister. It also documents his ongoing relationships with key political players such as Keith Davey, Tom Axworthy, and Richard O'Hagan, all of whom, like him, were determined to return the Liberals to power after their defeat in 1979 at the hands of Coutts's longtime Alberta rival, Joe Clark.
Among the many issues and developments documented in the series are PMO communications strategies, the increasingly sophisticated utilization of polling data, the development of electoral strategies, liaison with cabinet committees and the PCO, the development of energy and industrial policy, the management of various First Ministers' conferences, the preparation of speeches from the throne, the management of the government's response to issues relating to Bilingualism and Western Canadian alienation, the patriation of the constitution, and more mundane administrative matters, such as staffing and organizational issues in the PMO. The series contains many handwritten notes relating to cabinet meetings, PMO staff meetings, and the drafting of speeches. Numerous documents throughout this series have been stamped "Seen by PM." These and other records shed light on the nature of the relationship between Coutts and Prime Minister Trudeau.
The series, which contains some documents carried forward from Coutts's earlier career, is arranged in 17 sub-series: Personal and Political Correspondence, Jack Austin Files, Staff Files, Government Departments and Agencies, Polls and Surveys, Elections, Briefing Material and Strategy Documents, Subject Files, Provincial Files, Quebec and Bilingualism, Constitution, Political Parties, Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Ministers' Committee, Political Cabinet, Coutts Personal Subject and Network Files, and Diary Files.
