Balancing family and work: challenges facing Canadian MPs.

• Author: Koop, Royce

Many Canadians struggle to balance their families and careers. A 2011 Harris/Decima poll, reports that 47% of Canadians struggle to achieve a work-life balance, and family is often an important aspect of that balance. Certain professions, including that of MP, make achieving such a balance more difficult than others. This article looks at the overall nature of the strain on MPs the two strategies that MPs employ to adapt the challenges of the job, and potential reforms that might work to assuage some of the strain placed on MPs and their families. The data for this paper comes from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted by Samara, an independent charitable organization that improves political and democratic participation in Canada, as part of its MP Exit Interview Project. This paper used transcripts from the interviews of 65 former MPs who left public life during or after the 38th and 39th Parliaments. These men and women served, on average, 10.5 years, and together represented all political parties and regions of the country. The group included 21 cabinet ministers and one prime minister.

In his penetrating exploration of "the dark side" of political life in Canada, Steve Paikin saves the family for his book's penultimate chapter. Paikin's narrative stands as a stark warning to those entering politics and hoping to maintain a healthy family life. He tells the story of Christine Stewart, a Liberal MP elected in 1993, who attended an orientation session for rookies. "Look around this room," warned the session's guide. "Because by the end of your political careers, 70 percent of you will either be divorced or have done serious damage to your marriages." Paikin reports that Stewart felt she would be the exception to the rule; instead, her seventeen-year marriage came to an end during her time as MP.

How important is the strain on families to MPs? They illustrated the importance of this strain in three ways. First, when asked to discuss the negative aspects of their political careers, many MPs immediately and without cues pointed to the pressure it applied to their family lives. One MP from Saskatchewan, immediately pointed to such strain and the burden placed on his spouse:

It is tough on family. I knew that going in because I was a politician before that and I was away a lot. But it was a little worse than I thought ... My wife was just amazing. She handled a lot of that. Plus working in Ottawa two weeks out of every month. But for me, she was supportive and wanted me to stay, but I felt bad about the family. So that was the toughest part. Second, MPs betrayed the importance of family difficulties by celebrating the success of their own family lives. MPs are aware of the strain of political life on them, and often expressed gratitude (if not surprise) that their own family lives have not been affected too strongly. One MP made this point clearly in discussing his greatest accomplishment during his political career:

I am still living with the girl I first married 39 years ago. I have got two wonderful kids who are successful. What more can you ask? At the end of the day I did not lose a wife. The fact that this MP highlighted the maintenance of his marriage as his greatest accomplishment illustrates his perception of the severity of the position's strain on MPs' families.

Finally, MPs revealed the importance of family strain when they were asked about whether they would recommend a political career for others, and what advice they would provide to aspiring politicians. Most MPs who were asked this question endorsed the idea of a political career, but cautioned that the toll on family life was both severe and unanticipated.

Make sure that you balance your family life, your personal life, and your political life. I have seen too many marriages go through too many problems and it is hard. Those former MPs interviewed by Samara indicated four factors that either increase or decrease the strain: whether or not they have children and how old their children are; the orientation of the spouse to a political career; distance of MPs' constituencies from Ottawa; and advancements in communications technology and ease of travel.

MPs with young children, often felt that the job limited the time that they could spend with their children. "It is not the big events you miss at home, being away," notes one MP.

I look at some of these people who just got elected and have young families, and you do not realize what you are missing. We should give them even more support because that is what they are giving up to represent us. In contrast, MPs who were at a later life stage were hit less hard by the family costs of their political careers. This was particularly true of MPs with grown children, as the everyday worries of raising children had by this point subsided.

I would not have thought about running for office unless my kids were all grown up. I do not know how people with young children do it. When I was down there, I was worried about my kids so much. The second factor that affects the family stress created by MPs' careers relates to the orientation of their spouses to the job. Some political spouses are very supportive of MPs' careers and the tensions they introduce; others are much less so, and so MPs face significant stresses from time away from the family.

The crucial question appears to be whether MPs' spouses have meaningful careers that are important to them. Many MPs...