Getting to know you...

Before Samara started our MP exit interviews, we spent a good chunk of the summer researching the backgrounds of the 139 former MPs that left public life during the 38th and 39th Parliaments.

The team read whatever it could on these folks, including CBC riding profiles, and biographical sketches from Library of Parliament, Wikipedia and, where available, from the MPs' own websites.Where possible, we also read supplementary articles on each of our MPs and the issues they were involved with.

So yes, by the time we started our interviews, we were prepared – and we had also learned a great deal of unexpected and surprising information about who these Canadian MPs are (as a group) and how they compared to the average Canadian.

For example, available information reveals that at least 76% of the former MPs in our group are married or in a common-law relationship, versus 59% of Canadian adults.A small and perhaps random tidbit, but one that takes on a great deal more significance as our interviews reveal how much personal and family factors influence one's experience in public life.

This background research will also allow us to organize our results in a way that allows us to compare across a wide number of factors, including the age at which they were elected, their profession before politics, their gender, their place of birth as well as their home riding and political party.

All of which to say, there will be many more stories like this. Most Mondays we'll post a factoid or two in the hopes it helps you learn just a bit more about political leadership in Canada.