From rags to Rideau: Canadian politicians share stories of their lousiest jobs

Stephen Harper sorting mail? John Baird delivering your morning newspaper? Lisa Raitt slinging soft-serve at Dairy Queen?

It may be hard to picture, but some cabinet ministers struggled to make ends meet before reaching the halls of power.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's comment earlier this week that "any job is a good job" sparked anxiety among unemployed Canadians. Many fear they will have to abandon their careers and adopt any old job to pay the bills.

Tories take great pride in sharing their pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps stories, offering some insight into why they are so eager to tinker with the employment insurance system (none of the ministers questioned said they had never drawn EI).

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, born to a Cape Breton coal-mining family with seven kids, started work at Dairy Queen at age 14. Hoarding 13 years of minimum-wage earnings, she paid her way through two science degrees but struggled to find suitable work after graduating.

Finding none, she went back to DQ.

"In Cape Breton, every job is a good job, so I had no problem with it," she said. "I knew they were stopgaps, and I knew I had no other options."

Treasury Board President Tony Clement also began working at a young age at his father's restaurant, working from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. for $39 per week, he said.

But even that didn't compare with the ignominy of being an usher at the Ontario Film Institute auditorium, Clement said.

"I had to shine my flashlight on old ladies crumpling their lozenges a little too loudly," he said.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who said he started scrubbing floors at age 12, preferred the calm of janitorial work to the stress of being a busboy and waiter in his teens, which still gives him the chills, he said.

"Waiter is the toughest job I ever had," he said. "You have to keep, like, 10 things in mind at once."

Chief government whip Gordon O'Connor stocked shoes in a warehouse. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver sold encyclopedias door-to-door in the B.C. Interior.

"We needed the money, so we did it," Oliver said.

Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid his dues, said his spokesman, Andrew MacDougall. Harper worked in his early 20s in Imperial Oil's mailroom in Alberta before moving up the ladder to the computer department. As prime minister, Harper now pulls in a cool $317,000 per year.

Not all cabinet ministers have a hardscrabble story. Born into a wealthy, landowning political family in Nova Scotia, Defence Minister Peter MacKay didn't struggle to pay the rent or tuition.

After obtaining his law degree, MacKay worked for German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, where he learned the German he can be heard speaking from time to time with visiting diplomats.

On the opposition benches, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, also born into wealth, said he was pretty selective about the work he did during his university years. With a visible shudder, he recalled his brief experience bartending at the now-defunct Tramway Brasserie in Montreal.

"I worked about two double shifts and then I had to leave. It was just terrible," he said. "It paid minimum wage and was not a lot of fun."

Trudeau instead became a whitewater rafting guide.

Neither NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair nor Liberal Leader Bob Rae shared their work history with Postmedia News. The son of a distinguished diplomat, Rae was educated in tony private schools in Canada and abroad. Mulcair, meanwhile, is the great-great-grandson of Honoré Mercier, Quebec's ninth premier.

There remains a serious disconnect between the cabinet table and main-street Canada, said Erin Weir, a labour economist with the United Steelworkers union.

"Many MPs do have trouble understanding the challenges facing most working Canadians," he said. "Many of them are quite wealthy and wouldn't have to rely on employment insurance and be forced into poorly paid jobs."

While elite corporate jobs and ambassadorial postings may await some defeated politicians, Weir said, most out-of-work Canadians have a very different experience of the job market.

"If any of these ministers lose an election, they won't be relying on EI," he said.

Nevertheless, Tory decision-makers seem unlikely to back down on their mission to overhaul the EI system and stomp out fraud and other abuses.

"There's no free ride, and you have to earn your keep at home and contribute to the family," said Raitt, known for taking a hard line on strikes and work stoppages.

"Maybe it's a conservative value."

As for Flaherty's other dirty jobs, he said he has worked as a busboy, construction worker, house painter, carpet cleaner... and ran aquatics activities at a girls' summer camp.

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 19, 2012 A18