The House of Commons sits empty ahead the resumption of the session on Parliament Hill on Sept. 12, 2014 in Ottawa.Mark Johnson is a general counsel who has worked in the private and public sectors. He was a Conservative candidate in Toronto in the 2021 federal election.
While there are politicians with business experience, they either headed small firms or were not part of the C-suite at big ones. All are good training camps for political service, but as a collective, our MPs are conspicuously unrepresentative of Canada’s largest businesses. Aided by structured decision making and a sense of perspective, top executives work in high-pressure, high-profile and high-conflict positions. They’re experienced with large, unpleasant decisions and the accompanying unpopularity that can result.
“If you have held a prominent role in a substantial business you have learned how to mobilize, motivate and align the work of a lot of people. That ability is a learned skill. It’s not natural for most people,” he said in a If elected office is too much of a commitment, then providing informed and measured public commentary on important, non-partisan, non-business issues such as foreign relations and education policy – as JPMorgan chief executive officer Jamie Dimon and Microsoft’s Bill Gates do – is equally important.