Survivor's Guilt
Working all over the Hill after everyone else lost their jobs
After the 2011 election, McGuinty’s job was to go through the painful process of laying off nearly all the staff from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, which we no longer held, the Whip’s Office, and the House Leader’s Office. Some 200 Liberal staffers in various capacities and offices lost their jobs that night. My timing in coming to the Hill had not been impeccable.
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A few weeks of uncertainty followed. Nobody knew what was next; most were looking for work, and those wanting to stay on the Hill had to compete for the few remaining jobs. The NDP, having massively increased their seat count, was not against hiring former Liberal staffers and some found a new home there.
Eventually, McGuinty invited me to his office and offered me a one day per week, but permanent, position, doing database work, correspondence, and that essential component of all political jobs: other tasks as required. He also encouraged me to seek out other offices to work in, part time, and he and Jenny, who by then had become a close friend as well as my immediate boss, promised good references for anyone with whom I got to that stage.
I was ecstatic, and also had some kind of survivor’s guilt. Around 200 people, every one of them with more paid Hill experience than my 20 working days, had lost their jobs. Here I was, a total newcomer, surviving the electoral apocalypse.
In July of 2011, David talked to Frank Valeriote and convinced him of the wisdom of bringing me back into his office. Responsible for media monitoring and his social media, Frank took me back on, also at one day per week.
Two down, three to go.
When I was at the party office the previous winter, I had taken up the habit of making rich chocolate brownies and bringing them to the office to share, a recipe I had perfected in Guelph in the months after my divorce, when, by some form of necessity, I quickly learned how to cook as well as my ex had.
Over the summer of 2011, I refined the approach, making the brownies and visiting Liberal MP and Senate offices across the Hill, chocolate in one hand, CVs in the other. While this did not directly get me any contracts, I very quickly became known across the Hill.
On one memorable occasion, I knocked on Newfoundland MP Gerry Byrne’s door, and found him at the receptionist desk in his Justice Building office, no staff to be found. I smiled and offered him my trademark chocolate brownies, to which he stood up with a body language saying that this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, and with a smile declared “I’m Gerry Byrne!” – which I took to mean “yes,” and cut him a piece.
The Liberal caucus held their annual golf tournament in Montebello just before the House came back in September. I went there to volunteer and connect, buttonholing various people as opportunities presented themselves.
At one point at the end-of-tournament party, I found myself face to face with Halifax West MP and former Fisheries Minister the Hon. Geoff Regan. I made my brief pitch to him to do data and tech work as I was doing for McGuinty and Valeriote, to which he kind of frowned and said why don’t you talk to my executive assistant, who is over there. So I did. I went to Brian Underhill, his long-time EA, made a similar pitch, was greeted with a kind of cynical but courteous acknowledgement, and told to follow up in writing during working hours.
I reported back to Jenny on my encounter and she told Brian something, well, convincing. Because pretty soon Regan’s office called me for an interview and a few days later I was working for my third MP, and McGuinty’s team’s influence was again responsible for sealing the deal. His philosophy and that of his family is that loyalty works both ways; something few politicians understand. I now had three permanent contracts, three days a week of work; two to go.
Now working for nearly 10% of our tiny caucus, there were not a lot of obvious paths to go next, and pretty much everyone had already tried my brownies.
In the fall of 2011, David’s brother, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, called the provincial election and I quickly found myself busy doing data for another campaign, as his data director in his riding campaign, under the capable management of John Fraser, who would later go on to become interim Ontario Liberal leader himself.
The campaign was uneventful and fun; having now done several I was getting into the groove and loved the action.
Need my address for some brownies?