In the end, many MPs said they simply accepted that there was just no way to be prepared to be a Member of Parliament. “Well, I think we all did rather well. But were we prepared? No, I don’t think there is any school for preparation for being a Member of Parliament,” said one. “If you could arrive at Parliament knowing the way it works and all of those things, then you are going to be more productive from day one. But that's theoretical; it's never going to happen that way,” said another.
Instead, they were forced to prepare for their new positions with little institutional support—sometimes assisted by informal mentoring or by reading up on Parliamentary procedure—realizing there was little to do but dive in headfirst. Most coped by simply acknowledging that the learning curve was steep, and that the only way forward was to learn by doing. One MP said, “It takes time to figure out how it works... and [to figure out] what I want to do here. What can I do here? You don’t do that in a month, or a year. It’s an evolution over time.”
More notable is how many MPs went out of their way to describe their lack of preparation, particularly since it was not an explicit question in our interviews. The MPs’ descriptions of their lack of preparation were frequent and intense; however, given their varied backgrounds and the unpredictability of a job that requires winning elections, perhaps this is understandable. Yet it is still remarkable that this unpreparedness aroused such emotion, even years after they first took their seats in the House of Commons.
Lastly, it was surprising to learn that newly elected Parliamentarians had so little support during their initiation into national public life, including insufficient training or formal orientation. As it turns out, this isn’t the only frustrating aspect of the Parliamentary workplace.