Guest: Renaud Brossard (communications lead at a public policy think tank)
Public policy in Canada is a complicated topic. For Renaud Brossard, his job is to make the topic less complicated and more accessible to the public through media outlets. As a business major, he developed his policy analysis background over the years and by working with other high-end academics in the field.
When you are a political leadership candidate, it is a “leap of faith” job, according to Iain Black. He is attempting to become the head of the British Columbia Conservative Party, which means building a team he can trust. Because of how money works in such situations, his team is almost completely volunteer-run, from all different personal and business backgrounds. And it requires more than a full-time job – working every day of the week, in all parts of the province.
Can “encourager” be a job? For Joe Roberts, that is how he sees himself in a world full of change and uncertainty. In his Push For Change Foundation, he seeks to better protect kids so they don’t fall through the cracks. And he isn’t just all talk – he draws on his own struggles with being a homelessness youth in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. On top of his foundation, he also does public speaking at conferences, where he uses his empathy to understand how to speak to each audience.
What does it take to be a political leader? For Peter Milobar, it is a constant learning process, running in all different kinds of elections at the local and provincial levels, and growing his team along the way. His dream is to become leader of the Conservative Party of BC and become the premier of British Columbia, which involves listening to and recruiting personnel from all parts of the province.
Being a politician isn’t easy. According to Yuri Fulmer, it means a lot of travelling and talking to people face-to-face. As a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, it is vital for him to get to know the people he seeks to represent – no matter where in BC they live. While this is a tall task for anyone, this was not something Yuri thought he’d do, while growing up in Australia. What started as a 3-week journey in Canada ended up being 34 years – starting with a humble job at A&W, he learned how to lead through franchising a location in New Westminster and developed the entrepreneurship skills that shaped who he is today.
