Ashley Csanady holds more than 15 years of experience as a writer, editor and strategic consultant. With a career spanning Canadian newsrooms, government, non-profit organizations and the private sector, she excels at turning complex policy into powerful narratives.
As a senior consultant with McMillan Vantage, Ashley works with clients across the Canadian public policy space, from natural resources to agri-food to clean energy. She has a keen eye for all sides of an issue and landing stories with the right audience, whether it’s the media, the public, business leaders or political decision makers. She assists Vantage clients with strategic communications and government relations.
Ashley spent a decade working as a reporter and covering municipal, provincial and federal politics and public policy. She has hosted podcasts and radio shows, and she continues to provide punditry in print, online and in broadcast media about Ontario and federal politics. Her work has appeared in the National Post, the CBC, on Vice Media, Queen’s Park Briefing, iPolitics, among others.
Ashley left journalism for the world of politics and served in the office of former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. After the 2018 election, she worked as a consultant in the cannabis sector over the course of the legalization process. She then joined the Nuclear Waste Management Organization as senior writer and editor, where she leveraged her ability to make complex, technical content accessible to government, the public, and various stakeholder audiences. Today, Ashley is an active volunteer with the Ontario Liberal Party and a director on her local riding association for the Liberal Party of Canada.
She earned a Master’s of Journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University, and she later taught in their undergraduate program as a sessional lecturer. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English literature and rhetoric with a minor in history.
Ashley recently joined McMaster University as a sessional instructor for its Master of Public Policy in Digital Society Program.
She is also a Certified Sommelier under the Court of Master Sommeliers.