Let ’Em Howl
“Pat’s peerless mastery of political organization and deep commitment to progressive politics has made her one of Canadian politics’ secret weapons. And the cut-the-crap directness that has deflated more than one puffed-up politician or self-serving staffer is on full display in this book. She tells her story—and its universal lessons for anyone wanting to make a real contribution in the world of politics—in typical Pat Sorbara style: with a steely eye, a sharp tongue, a big heart and, most of all, an uncompromising honesty.”
– Peter Donolo, Vice-Chair Hill+Knowlton Canada, and former Director of Communications for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Let ’Em
Howl
Lessons from a Life in Backroom Politics
Pat Sorbara
2019
Copyright © Pat Sorbara, 2019
all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, www.accesscopyright.ca, [email protected].
Nightwood Editions
P.O. Box 1779
Gibsons, BC v0n 1v0
Canada
cover design: Matthew Dupuis & Carleton Wilson
typesetting: Carleton Wilson
Cover photo: Jenna Muirhead
Nightwood Editions acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
This book has been produced on 100% post-consumer recycled, ancient-forest-free paper, processed chlorine-free and printed with vegetable-based dyes.
Printed and bound in Canada.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Let ’em howl : lessons from a life in backroom politics / Patricia Sorbara.
Names: Sorbara, Patricia, 1956- author.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190127368 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190127384 | ISBN 9780889713581 (softcover) | ISBN 9780889711488 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sorbara, Patricia, 1956- | LCSH: Political consultants—Ontario—Biography. | LCSH: Women political consultants—Ontario—Biography. | LCSH: Ontario—Officials and employees—Biography.
Classification: LCC FC3079.1.S67 A3 2019 | DDC 971.3/05092—dc23
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In acknowledgement of every person, regardless of party, who signed up to be a political staffer somewhere along the way. Never doubt that your time in the backrooms of politics, campaigns and government made a difference. You are unsung heroes, in every way possible.
Introduction
I have been a person of politics for more than forty years. It’s been my passion. I’ve put in hundreds of hours as a volunteer and I’ve worked as a staff person at many levels, both provincially and federally—moving up the ranks from constituency assistant to the campaign director and chief executive officer of the Ontario Liberal Party. Even when I stepped away from it completely, to pursue a different career path, it pulled me back. Over and over. It has always been there—in my head, in my heart, in my subconscious. And while I think it’s partly because I’m very good at it, I know it’s mostly because I believed, from a very early age, that government matters—and by extension, politics matters, too. Ultimately it meant that I was destined to be a political lifer.
I was always aware of the phrase “women in politics” and to be honest, it was odd to me. In the earliest years I was obviously cognizant of how few women were elected officials but in the part of the political world in which I was operating, the majority of the people who did the work—in the background and in campaigns—were women. When I started my career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, women in general were still being discouraged from putting their careers ahead of all else. But in politics, women were beginning to wield significant influence behind the scenes. All you had to do was ask the male politicians whom they counted on the most. There was almost always a woman running the show in the backroom, and the smartest politicians didn’t make a move without her okay.
Beyond that, the campaign offices were filled with women who did the manual work and ran the day-to-day. They executed key decisions, managed volunteers, trained canvassers and led the outreach to voters. But they also made meals and swept floors. They taught me how to recognize priorities and manage crises while, at the same time, it was made clear to me that no job was too small. They taught me it was always about getting the job done, whatever that required and however long that took. I learned an incredible amount at the feet of those women, and I loved every minute of it.
But after a while it became apparent to me that, while female role models were never lacking in the backroom, what was lacking was the number of women who sat at the table—and who had a voice—where the decisions were being made. The table didn’t matter—whether they were tables in campaign offices, the caucus room or the cabinet table, there weren’t enough of us. And I wanted to help change that.
Much has been written in recent years about cracking the glass ceiling, which in politics almost always refers to elected women. It has been thrilling to watch the change around women running for office. I started recruiting female candidates in the days when the comments would run along the lines of, “The voters of this riding will never elect a woman,” or “There are no qualified women in this riding.” That’s why it was so meaningful to me to have had a significant role in electing the first woman leader of a mainstream political party in Ontario and years later, to hold the second-most senior role on the team that won the fight to elect the first woman premier of Ontario.
Little did I know that just months after electing that woman, I’d find myself in a position I never imagined I’d face. In December 2014, my cover as a backroom operative far from the public eye was blown completely when it was announced I was being investigated in relation to ostensibly bribing a potential candidate to step down in a nomination race in Sudbury, Ontario. Suddenly I was catapulted to the front pages of the newspapers and lead-off questions in question period.
The first day of my trial—September 7, 2017—held in a heritage courthouse in Sudbury, was my sixty-first birthday. As I walked into the courtroom for the first time, one of my lawyers, Erin Dann, turned to me and said, “There’s something