Changing partisan representatives while maintaining office staff.

• Position: Elizabeth Witmer - Interview

Upon replacing long-time Liberal Herb Epp as MPP for the riding of Waterloo North in 1990, Progressive Conservative Elizabeth Witmer hired two of her predeccessor's constituency office staff. In this interview, Witmer notes that although such arrangements are uncommon between politicians with different partisan affiliations, adopting a firmly non-partisan approach to hiring staff for constituency work served her and her community well.

CPR: Can you tell us how you became involved in politics and the path that took you to your election as an MPP?

Elizabeth Witmer: I had developed an interest in politics while I was in high school. When I was 18 I had gone to a rally with my Member of Provincial Parliament in Huron County, and member of cabinet, Charles McNaughton. He invited me to attend a rally with him and his wife. I remember coming home and thinking that I would like to be an MPP just like him. Mr. McNaughton was a very caring person who, regardless of your station in life or your political affiliation, respected and treated everyone the same. I was very impressed with the way he served and worked for his constituents. After graduation from high school I went to Western to become a secondary school teacher. After 12 years teaching I made a decision to leave the teaching profession and seek public office. I decided to run for election as a school board trustee, as opposed to municipal council, because I felt I had the educational experience that would serve me well. I ran for the board in 1980 and was successful. I became Chair of the Board in 1985. I was invited to run for the PC Party in 1987 and despite the fact that I knew that I could not defeat Herb Epp, because he was a well-respected, people-oriented representative, I decided to become the PC candidate. Sometimes you have to run and lose in order to learn how you can win the next time around. I ran again in 1990 and was successful at a time when the province voted NDP. My riding switched from Liberal to Conservative. It was very much, I believe, based on people voting for a person with a track record as opposed to my political affiliation.

CPR: When new parliamentarians are elected they are allowed to use some of the office budget to set up a constituency office. Sometimes when they are replacing someone from the same party they'll hire members of their former staff. But it's extremely rare for a new member to hire the staff of the former member if they represented a different...