How do we attract more businesspeople in public life?

The passing of former prime minister Brian Mulroney has led to a re-examination of his legacy. Beyond his policy achievements, there are lessons to be learned from Mulroney’s brand of leadership, which was rooted in being on the ice, rather than in the stands. His example begs the question: Why don’t more businesspeople run for office today? In 1976, Mulroney decided it was time to move from successful labour lawyer and backroom political organizer to political candidate. He ran, unsuccessfully, for the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1976. He then joined the Iron Ore Company of Canada as an executive vice-president, and was quickly promoted to president. In 1983, he ran—successfully this time—for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party, and was prime minister the following year. Through transformational policies, he became one the most consequential prime ministers in Canadian history. Mulroney was not the first person to make the leap from a successful career in business to a very successful career in politics. In 1968, Don Mazankowski, who ran an automobile and farm machinery dealership with his brother in Vegreville, Alta., won a seat in the House. He served in top cabinet posts—minister of finance and deputy prime minister—in the Mulroney government. He was essentially the chief operating officer of the federal cabinet, and ‘minister of everything,' according to Mulroney. He played a key role in the privatization of Petro-Canada and Air Canada, and was the prime minister’s voice when he was absent from the House on thorny issues like free trade and Meech Lake. ‘Maz,' as he was known, was arguably the most effective deputy prime minister in Canadian history. In contrast to too many politicians today, “Mulroney’s new deputy is by all appearances without personal enemies," Maclean’s noted in 1986. Prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau dispatched John Turner and Senator Keith Davey to recruit Cornwall mayor Ed Lumley to run federally in 1974. Lumley, who had become a wealthy young man as a Coca-Cola bottler, emerged as a hard-working MP. Trudeau respected Lumley’s business acumen, and his approach to politics—the fact that he put his constituents first. Whether at the cabinet table or with officials in the departments he led, he would always ask, “How is this good for the people of my riding?” If an official didn’t have an answer, the idea didn’t make it past Lumley’s desk. As trade minister, he got limits on Japanese auto imports, and got them to build plants in Canada. He also initiated early talks on free trade with the Reagan administration. Michael Wilson was executive vice-president of what is now RBC Dominion Securities when he ran for federal office in 1979. Wilson introduced major personal and corporate income tax reforms. He also replaced the hidden manufacturers sales, which harmed our competitiveness, with the goods and services tax, which taxed consumption. And Wilson was a key player in the free trade negotiations with the United States. Paul Martin Jr. was president of Canada Steamship Lines before running federally in 1988. Having turned crippling deficits into healthy surpluses, he was one of the most successful ministers of finance in Canadian history, and he went on to become prime minister. There are also examples of prominent businesspeople making the leap to federal politics who had a bumpier experience. Walter Gordon was a partner at the prominent accounting firm Clarkson Gordon who went on to become federal finance minister before being sent to back benches by prime minister Lester Pearson. Bill Morneau, who was executive chairman at benefit consulting firm Morneau Sheppell, also went on to become minister of finance. Like Gordon, Morneau, too, seemed to have trouble in shaping the government’s policy agenda and in getting along with the prime minister. Politics, in Canada and elsewhere, has become less civil and more acrimonious. Social media clips are an important fundraising tool when it comes to revving up the base. This deters many people from putting their name on the ballot. The challenge is that government functions best when there is a mix of experiences and competencies around the cabinet table. Elected officials need to come from many walks of life, including law, education, health and social services, science and engineering, and business. It is from the crucible of different perspectives that the best ideas—the bold ideas that may transform Canada—emerge. Pierre Trudeau, Mulroney, and Jean Chrétien were able to attract businesspeople to run for office. Since then, not so much—with Morneau as a notable exception. How can businesspeople be convinced that the choice of seeking public office is worth it? That politics is a noble pursuit? That service to country is a higher calling than service to the bottom line? Sadly, the flow of talent between the private and elected public sectors is decidedly one way in Canada. The private sector has been enriched by the talents of politicians turned senior bankers: Lumley, Brian Tobin, and Scott Brison at BMO; Frank McKenna and Rona Ambrose at TD; and the late Jim Prentice; Lisa Raitt at CIBC; and Navdeep Bains at CIBC. Canada is rich in talent. If we are to capitalize on this, we need to tap the best and the brightest, including smart young women and men with business experience, to run for public office. As the economic challenges facing Canada become more and more pronounced, where are today’s Mulroneys, Mazankowskis, Lumleys, Wilsons, and Martins who can help make Canada more competitive, more prosperous, and more confident? Kevin Lynch is a former clerk of the Privy Council and vice chair of BMO Financial Group. Paul Deegan is a former a public affairs executive at BMO and CN, and he served in the Clinton White House. The Hill Times