On the road (IV) - Paths to Parliament

I'll be in Ottawa this Friday, November 19, speaking at a conference examining routes to elected office in Canada, hosted by the Canadian Study of Parliament Group.  I'm on the second panel with two political scientists, Bill Cross and David Docherty.  Both were terrificly helpful to us in getting our exit interview project off the ground and I'm looking forward to speaking with them.

I'll be talking mostly about how the MPs told us they found their ways to Parliament, as outlined here.  I'll also preview some of the results from our second report (coming in a few weeks), which talks about how the MPs defined the essential purpose of their roles and their orientation to Parliament.  Cross will be talking about the results of a survey of candidates (some succcessful, some not) and Docherty will discuss the links (or not) between municipal, provincial and federal candidates and parties.

The other panels will include a discussion on the roadblocks facing women and visible minority candidates (for stats on this from our current Parliament, see our 40th Parliament series) and the view from abroad.

The agenda is here, registration info is here.  Hope to see some of you there!