
Show Notes
You know what a politician sounds like on the job. But once they leave office, that’s when they can share what’s truly on their minds.
Join host Sabreena Delhon as she speaks with former Members of Parliament, to hear, in their own words, what this job is really like. Their stories are woven together in a six-part series that explores an MPs path to politics, why they left, and what it cost them to serve their communities.
Tune in to Humans of the House, a podcast from the Samara Centre for Democracy.
Listen to the trailer and subscribe now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Humans of the House
Canada’s democracy is under threat, and the stakes are high. But when we focus on how we are connected, we find the power to act - to strengthen what’s working and fix what’s not. This is what’s behind the Samara Centre for Democracy’s Group Chat podcast, hosted by Sabreena Delhon. It’s where we bring people together to make sense of this moment of democratic uncertainty - with a few friends.
In this special bonus episode, we celebrate and reflect upon the tenth anniversary of the bestseller book, Tragedy in the Commons, written by Samara Centre for Democracy co-founders, Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan. Samara Centre CEO Sabreena Delhon hosts this conversation to ask, what has changed? What has stayed the same? Where are the fault lines in Canadian democracy?
We’ve come to the final chapter of an MP’s civic journey. What is it like to leave office? Whether they resigned, decided not to run again, or lost an election, former MPs tell us their stories of leaving parliament. Just like any ending, it brings lots of mixed emotions.
This episode features audio clips from ABC News, Global News, CNN, Bloomberg, The Ottawa Citizen, and PBS NewsHour.We elect our representatives hoping they’ll make meaningful change while in office. We lose trust when we see their election promises broken. But we don’t often get to see the process of making change from their point of view. What does it take for MPs to make a difference?
Who is an MP’s real boss? Their party leader? Canadians? Themselves? MPs have to strike a balance between serving their riding’s needs, their party’s interests, and their own goals that brought them to Ottawa in the first place. But what happens when these priorities clash? This episode, we explore partisan politics and party power. Former MPs tell their stories of learning unwritten rules, striking out on their own, compromise, and unlikely friendship.