Posted Sep. 1/05
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- Angus MacLean Rennie, BPAPM/05
The first time Angus MacLean Rennie, BPAPM/05, ventured behind the scenes of Parliament Hill, he was amazed.
The 22 year-old got his first taste of the political scene when he was a Carleton student and participant in the Parliamentary Page Program. From this perch on the floor of the House of Commons, he got a bird’s eye view of the way burning issues evolve from emergency debates to bills to legislation.
It was really enlightening, he says, to observe the way parties and Members of Parliament interact with one another to get the job done.
Especially insightful was watching the contentious debates on the same-sex marriage bill unfold — an issue that was front and centre during Rennie’s time on the Hill and continued to be up until last June when the majority of MPs voted to legally recognize the marriage of homosexual couples. Canada became the third country in the world to do so.
“The give and take in Parliament, the process of consulting the public, the struggle to decide what to do about the issue, conducting outreach to Canadians, rallying support … it was an eye-opener to witness the incredible amount of time and attention to detail that is paid to all of this by Parliamentarians,” says Rennie.
The recent Carleton graduate observed similar things during his time in the office of Liberal MP Peter Milliken, who also serves as Speaker of the House. As special assistant to Milliken, Rennie discovered new challenges, including the need to serve the MP’s constituents while reflecting the impartiality that the Speaker must exercise on all matters before the Commons.
Rennie currently works at the Ontario Liberal Caucus Service Bureau, the party’s provincial unit which takes care of strategic communications and research. This fall, he will return to academia — this time to study law at McGill University.