As part of our meeting’s wishlist, the interns try to meet all the federal party leaders. We also try to meet with our alumni, who are always candid with their experiences in and beyond OLIP. In the Programme’s 45 years, never had those two groups overlapped until this past October when Annamie Paul was elected to lead the federal Green Party.
We started our discussion as we do with most alumni, hearing about their time as an OLIPer. Ms. Paul spoke about her internship during the Mike Harris government and how the fundamentals she learnt during the programme continue to serve her well in her career. One of these fundamentals being non-partisanship, a quality not usually associated with a party leader, but something that Ms. Paul finds very important in her work, especially when dealing with the big policy issues. She explained that while partisanship has its merits, it shouldn’t be the only tool we use to create policy solutions.
We discussed her early work in promoting diversity in Canadian politics. We then got to learn more about her own decision to enter politics. In this regard, Ms Paul has a strong belief in timing, not too early and not for too long. We ended with her thoughts on the future, which included addressing the many policy challenges facing the riding of Toronto Centre.
The interns were so grateful to Ms Paul for taking the time to meet with us. We look forward to catching up with her in the future at one of our alumni events!