A project of this size and scope is not possible without the hard work, helpful advice and encouragement of a wide variety of people. We are particularly indebted to the generous support of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians, and in particular to Léo Duguay, Francis LeBlanc, Jack Murta, Susan Simms and the late Honourable Douglas Frith, for supporting this project from its very early days.
Thank you also to the 65 former Members of Parliament who generously gave their time to be interviewed and willingly shared their experiences and perspectives with us. A list of all participating MPs is available in the appendix. Thank you equally to those MPs who also agreed to participate and to whom we have not yet spoken. We were warned that there would be reluctance among many to participate in this project, and we were delighted to learn that this was not the case.
We are also grateful to those who worked with us to organize and conduct the interviews. Mariève Forest interviewed former MPs in Québec and parts of eastern Ontario. Reva Seth interviewed some of the MPs in southern Ontario, and Morris Chochla interviewed those in northern Ontario. Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan interviewed everyone else. Ruth Ostrower coordinated the transportation and other logistics required to visit so many communities across Canada.
Simon Andrews, Donna Banham, Allison Buchan-Terrell, Andrew Dickson, Emilie Dionne, Suzanne Gallant, Myna Kota, Joseph McPhee, Charles Perrin, Bronwyn Schoner and Nick Van der Graff transcribed the interview tapes.
Shira Honig provided assistance in drafting the text. Suzanne Gallant, Andreas Krebs and Sarah Loat provided invaluable editing advice that improved the text dramatically. Sarah Blanchard, Grant Burns, Suzanne Gallant and Shira Honig provided equally valuable help in analyzing the interview transcripts and selecting quotations.
Peter McNelly provided interview training to ensure consistency in the interviewers’ approach. We are also indebted to Professor Mary Ann McColl for her training on qualitative research methods, and to Paul Kim, Ryan Bloxridge and Scott Snowden for designing this publication. Thank you to Patrick Johnston for suggesting we get advice from former Parliamentarians in the first place.
A number of people provided sage advice on structuring and releasing the wider series of reports, including Erica Adelson, Elly Alboim, Yaroslav Baran, Abigail Bueno, Jennifer Dolan, Velma McColl, Geoff Norquay and William Young. Many professors also shared reflections on this research project in light of their own scholarship, including Sylvia Bashevkin, William Cross, David Docherty, Luc Juillet, Peter Loewen, Jonathan Malloy, Matthew Mendelsohn and Paul Saurette. Each provided excellent advice for which we are most grateful. Any errors, of course, are our own.
Samara’s Advisory Board also contributed helpful suggestions from the outset of this project. Thank you to Sujit Choudhry, Heather Conway, Scott Gilmore, Robert Prichard and Perry Spitznagel.
Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan