{"id":2908,"date":"2018-12-10T09:40:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T14:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/?post_type=cu_people&#038;p=2908"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:08:26","slug":"benjamin-sparkes","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/people\/benjamin-sparkes\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Sparkes"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<p>Benjamin is the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Previously Benjamin worked as Director of Operations for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. Before that he spent two years in the Office of the Prime Minister as Senior Advance on the Prime Minister\u2019s Tour team. He has also served as Policy Advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, and Atlantic Regional Advisor to the Minister of Indigenous Services. In all, Benjamin has more than a decade of experience working on Parliament Hill, in addition to working in senior roles on municipal, provincial and federal election campaigns. Benjamin also holds an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences in Political Science from the University of Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe Riddell Program provided unmatched real-world practical skills that are often lacking from most political science programs. The faculty are all experienced political practitioners who can share their first-hand knowledge and expertise. Whether you are already working in the political sphere, or looking to find a way in, I can\u2019t recommend this program enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Last Revision: March 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5239,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Benjamin ","cu_people_last_name":"Sparkes","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[34,51],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-2908","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni","cu_people_type-alumni-graduated-2014-2018"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs","cu_people_degree":"MPM 2018","cu_building":false,"cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"none","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6198,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/2908\/revisions\/6198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/politicalmanagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}