Once a bookish background adviser, now he believes he has the best job in the world

Karim Bardeesy used to hang out in some pretty lofty places in politics. He was a top policy adviser for Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, an “inside” job that seemed to suit his bookish, introverted personality. But he surprised many when he decided to run in the 2022 Ontario election. He lost that time, but re-upped two months later in the federal campaign. The second time was the charm. He won Taiaiako’n-Parkdale-High Park by a whopping 21,000 votes, and despite widespread cynicism in and around politics these days, somehow manages to maintain his belief that politics is important and can be an uplifting experience.

Steve Paikin: Let’s start by finding out what the biggest difference is between being a backroom adviser and a guy who put his name on a ballot and is now a member of Parliament.

Karim Bardeesy: As a background adviser, you work five long days a week, and then generally on the weekends, you get to go home, recharge, read a bit, maybe respond to a few emails. But being an MP is a 24/7 job and you have to build some boundaries around that. You’re also in Ottawa 26 weeks a year.

SP: Which job do you like better?

KB: I love this job. This is the best job I’ve ever had.

SP: Better than working for a premier?

KB: Absolutely. Because you are on the front lines of what your constituents want and need. And you’re in a collaborative place with 342 other MPs who are working hard for their country at a moment where we need leadership more than ever.

SP: I’m going to push you on that a bit because you were right up there among the senior inner circle for Premier McGuinty and Premier Wynne. And now you’re, what, one of 130-plus government backbenchers?

KB: I wrote platforms back in the day. I was the one ministers or MPPs would come to. I had a big team of policy advisers. I was on the senior leadership team of the premier. I had far more face time with the head of the government then than I do now.

SP: So, how is this better?

KB: I think the opportunity to bring your voice through the platform, and to draw on your life experience — including being an adviser, a teacher (at Toronto Metropolitan University), a think tank leader, and as a journalist — and bring all those together in my community and in Ottawa is more fulfilling to me. As an elected person, you’re mediating interests or you’re getting inputs from a much broader range of places.

SP: Are you getting access to the prime minister, though?

KB: The question is, what do you need it for? What are you trying to push? I advocate a lot with ministers. I advocate through and with my colleagues. I’m in the climate caucus, the youth caucus, the women’s caucus, the auto caucus. I’m probably in more subject-area-caucuses than any of my peers. As someone who’s been teaching for 15 years and has a lot of young people who came into the Liberal convention through my educational experiences, yeah, I’m going to be on the youth caucus. So, these are all new experiences I would never have done as an adviser, as a director of policy, even at a very senior level.

SP: You seem to have the temperament and personality of a guy who’s not desperate to be in the spotlight. You’re not a backslapping, hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. You seem happy just to be an introvert, which is not typical for people who run for office. How do you work all that out?

KB: You know, maybe I’m somewhat between Dalton and Kathleen. I saw Kathleen go, go, go 15 hours a day getting energy from people. I saw Dalton, who was in his comfortable place at home late at night, or reflecting, and then preparing those perfectly crafted speeches. Kathleen’s speeches were also very well crafted, but were more engaging with the audience discursively, you could say. And speaking? Actually, that’s one part of the work I didn’t think I would enjoy as much as I do. The House of Commons is a place where only the MPs can speak. So, no backroom person, no matter how senior, can speak in that place. I use that place to express my perspective on the issues in a way that I hope is thoughtful, in a way that maybe is a bit more than the 30-second clip. And what I appreciate is that some people actually notice. So, there’s an appetite for the kind of politics I practice. Just a couple of days ago, I was at the Copernicus Lodge, which is a Polish long-term care and assisted living housing facility in my riding, and I recognized the 20th anniversary of their adult day program. I got to see a side of things that, if you’re a background person, you never get to see. I come to this because this is something I want to continue, that the community should be proud of. Those moments are fairly non-partisan, but they’re the essential lifeblood of our democracy just as much as the most highfalutin policy.

SP: Since you’ve raised the issue of democracy, I’m curious whether during your academic career, you ever considered the notion of a government, which, on election day, was elected to a minority situation, but through floor-crossings, managed to get a majority. What do you think of the legitimacy of that?

KB: It’s a fascinating question. My first two bosses in politics were (Liberal MPPs) Sean Conway and Jim Bradley — people with the highest respect for parliamentary democracy and the highest level of knowledge, too. Conway always said the people choose a Parliament and Parliament chooses a government. What we have now is a number of MPs who have made this very courageous decision (to cross the floor). I’ve met with them. I sit beside them. And the amount of courage, the amount of risk that they took should not be underestimated. Some of them continue to get pressured by Conservative party leadership, or the Conservative party’s allies, who make their lives difficult in their ridings. So, we now have a Parliament of a different hue. I think that’s fine. I would also say if you look back on elections, the last time there was a party that had our level of vote percentage …

SP: It was over 43%

KB: … they had a majority. (Progressive Conservative party in 1988), So, I definitely feel in my riding of Taiaiako’n-Parkdale-High Park that there is an appetite for a strong government. We are now the only party that has MPs in every province, and now in every territory. And I think people are looking for, yes, local representation, for their values to be represented, but they’re also looking for a government that can act for the national interests, especially at a time where there’s not one but two separatist movements threatening us, as well as the threats from outside Canada that threaten to tear us apart. That is a very strong argument for having a government that can have the time to do its work.
SP: Having said that, when you heard that (former Conservative MP) Marilyn Gladu, Sarnia-Lambton was going to cross the floor and become a Liberal, what was your initial reaction?

KB: I don’t know her well, but I’ve seen her in a few settings. I’ve seen her interventions on the floor of Parliament and I’ve respected them, and I’ve engaged with her in debate a couple times when she was on that side of the House. She also was maybe the only Conservative who joined an event that was around National Kindness Week. Marilyn came to that event to help honour this. And I saw, in that hour, at that reception, which wasn’t covered by media, that this is someone who’s a fellow parliamentarian who has a lot of alignment in the way she aspires to do politics.

SP: Complete this sentence: my time in public life, however long it lasts, will have been worth it if …

KB: If we can keep the country strong and united, if in my riding we can bridge the differences between people by income and neighbourhood, and build more housing, and if we succeed at creating new opportunities and promise for the next generation — the generation I used to teach — and if we can keep the country strong economically, territorially, and technologically sovereign, it’ll all have been worth it.