Ten Years of Exit Interviews with Former MPs.

• Author: Hilderman, Jane

Ten years after commencing the initial round of exit interviews with departing Members of Parliament, the Samara Centre for Democracy has recently published three new reports based on a second round of interviews. These publications, and the best-selling book Tragedy in the Commons, have received tremendous attention in the media and amongst parliamentary observers who have been interested in the candid observations of former parliamentarians. In this article, the authors outline the organization's evolving interview process and overall methodological approach and discuss tentative plans to make the individual long form interviews available to future researchers.

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Ten years ago, as a brand new nonpartisan charity, the Samara Centre for Democracy launched a pan-Canadian project founded on the belief that a chasm was opening between political leaders and citizens, but that leaders themselves might hold some clues for how to begin to close it. So began the Member of Parliament exit interviews project.

Our initial round of exit interviews was undertaken between 2008 and 2011. We worked in partnership with the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians, whose support permitted us to reach former members from across parties, and across the country in both English and French. In total, the Samara Centre spoke with 80 former MPs who had sat in the 38th, 39th, and 40th Parliaments, including more than 20 cabinet ministers and one prime minister. Those interviews formed the basis for four reports, and the best-selling book Tragedy in the Commons (2014). (1)

The 2015 federal election brought tremendous turnover to the House of Commons-cumulatively over 400 years' worth of MP career experience was departing. We decided, therefore, that it was important to replicate the project. Throughout 2017, we spoke to another 54 MPs who had sat in the 41st Parliament and were defeated or retired in 2015. Those interviews form the basis of a series of three new reports released this year that flesh out the job description for Members of Parliament. (2)

The idea of exit interviews is straight forward. It's a concept borrowed from the private sector where staff or executives departing an organization are asked to speak candidly from intimate, insider knowledge about what is and is not working. In the same way, former MPs have unique insights into the functioning of our pinnacle democratic institutions. And having exited public life, they are freer to...