{"id":1243,"date":"2011-03-16T16:11:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T20:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/"},"modified":"2014-05-21T13:25:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T17:25:41","slug":"often-the-job","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted Sep. 1\/05<\/em><\/p>\n

Previous: Contact us<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on planes rather than spending precious time with loved ones. In the capital, MPs toil in the microcosm that is Parliament Hill for months on end, getting swept up in the intricacies of what can be a very stressful job.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/address>\n
\n
\"\"<\/dt>\n
\n
John Manley, BA\/71, delivers the federal budget in 2003 during his time as federal Minister of Finance.<\/address>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

But there is another, less obvious challenge that MPs deal with every day, says John Manley, BA\/71, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada who represented the riding of Ottawa-South for 16 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is relentless criticism from the media,\u201d he says from his law office in Ottawa where he is currently a member of McCarthy Tetrault\u2019s senior counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a public figure, especially if you\u2019re in Cabinet, you develop the ability to ignore a lot of (the criticism). But it doesn\u2019t make it a healthy place to work. It\u2019s just plain tough. When you\u2019re the one who\u2019s on the line, you develop a fairly thick skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this kind of challenge, Manley says, that can prevent good people from entering politics. For others, the opportunity to achieve change is worth the potential strain on one\u2019s private life and public reputation, he says.<\/p>\n

According to Manley, the best way for federal politicians to create change really depends on their vantage point in the House of Commons. Cabinet ministers have \u201ca lot of power\u201d and \u201ca defined set of responsibilities,\u201d which makes change quite tangible, he says. Manley experienced these responsibilities first-hand when he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000. Following 9\/11, he became Chairman of a new Cabinet Committee on Public Security and Anti-terrorism.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Manley was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Political Minister for Ontario and Chairman of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Union and Social Union. He became Finance Minister in June 2002 and tabled the government\u2019s budget in February 2003.<\/p>\n

Out of his long list of achievements, Manley is proud of the fact that Canada was the first country to connect all of its schools and libraries to the Internet \u2014 an initiative that he spearheaded in the 1990s. He is also proud of his involvement in the Smart Border Accord that Canada and the U.S. agreed upon following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The accord enhanced border security while ensuring cross-border trade remained fluid.<\/p>\n

While the results of these initiatives were borne out of Manley\u2019s capacity as a Cabinet minister, he says an MP does not have to be in Cabinet to achieve such things. When the Liberal Party was the Official Opposition and John Turner was the party\u2019s leader, Manley would attend finance committee meetings even though he wasn\u2019t a committee member. He did so because finance was one of his many areas of interest. At every opportunity during these meetings, Manley would raise his hand to ask questions. Gradually, he built a name for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my approach to law as well,\u201d Manley says. \u201cThere\u2019s no substitute for building credibility. You can\u2019t assume you have it. You have to build it. Once you\u2019ve built it, then you can have influence. I always felt that backbench MPs were like small-business people: If they were entrepreneurial, if they were focused, they could accomplish things.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Fast fact…<\/p>\n

John Manley\u2019s favourite course while attending Carleton was Political Science 100, taught by George Roseme. Says Manley: \u201cI still remember Professor Roseme saying, \u2018Politics is ubiquitous and inevitable.\u2019 And it was a reminder that even though I was mainly interested in politics as it was practised in government, that unless you understood political apparatus \u2014 how decisions were made and how institutions organized themselves \u2014 you probably wouldn\u2019t get very far in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next: Fixing Canada’s democratic deficit<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted Sep. 1\/05 Previous: Contact us For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on planes rather than spending precious time with loved ones. In the capital, MPs toil in the microcosm that is Parliament Hill for months on end, getting swept up in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":1220,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"\nOften, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight - PAnorama<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Posted Sep. 1\/05 Previous: Contact us For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/\",\"name\":\"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight - PAnorama\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-16T20:11:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-21T17:25:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Posted Sep. 1\/05 Previous: Contact us For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Archives\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Fall 2005\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/\",\"name\":\"PAnorama\",\"description\":\"Carleton University\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight - PAnorama","description":"Posted Sep. 1\/05 Previous: Contact us For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/","url":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/","name":"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight - PAnorama","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-16T20:11:51+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-21T17:25:41+00:00","description":"Posted Sep. 1\/05 Previous: Contact us For many Members of Parliament whose ridings are far from Ottawa, much time is spent zipping across the country on","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/often-the-job\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archives","item":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Fall 2005","item":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/archives\/fall-2005\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Often, the job is \u201cjust plain tough\u201d Former Deputy PM John Manley talks about life in the political spotlight"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/#website","url":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/","name":"PAnorama","description":"Carleton University","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"acf":{"banner_image_type":null,"banner_uploaded_image":null,"banner_hosted_image":null,"banner_opacity":null,"banner_button":null,"banner_buttons":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1243\/revisions\/1818"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}