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Public service key to happiness, Flaherty tells students
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CBC News-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is urging students to consider a life of public service, admitting the pay isn’t good but promising it makes him truly happy.
In his prepared remarks for a speech to business students, Flaherty encourages them to spend at least a few years eschewing Bay Street, Toronto’s financial hub, in favour of serving their communities.
“In this room it’s conceivable that we could have future mayors, future deputy ministers, chairs of school boards, a minister of foreign affairs, or perhaps even a future prime minister,” he says in the speech, delivered Tuesday at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
“In order for this to happen, however, you have to answer the call.”
Flaherty says public service is unlike any career and that it makes him “truly happy,” more than any other career he has had.
The former provincial finance minister has served in government since 1995 when he was elected to Ontario's legislature. He was elected to federal office in 2006.
"It features long hours, relatively lower rates of pay than comparable positions on Bay Street, and it is often decades before you can witness the positive results of your labour," Flaherty said of politics. "Some of you might then ask: 'If the hours are long and the pay low, why would I do it?'
"The answer is simple: It is the most satisfying and personally enriching career you will ever find. This, my friends, is priceless.
"If money was all that mattered to me, I would still be working as a lawyer in downtown Toronto. Because I can tell you, I would be making a lot more money than I am now. But I would have missed out on so many experiences that have enriched my life. And I would have missed out on so many opportunities to shape and implement public policies that, in my opinion, have enriched others’ lives and made our communities and country stronger."
The speech comes as the federal government is looking to trim its spending by five or 10 per cent in each department, which will undoubtedly mean job cuts.
The government says it will make the bulk of the cuts through attrition.
Public service isn’t limited to the civil service or public office, Flaherty says. It could include working or volunteering for community groups like the local Chamber of Commerce, service organizations, charities, cultural groups like the local library, or the school board.
Flaherty points to several prominent people who chose careers in the public service, reaching for examples from former Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier – who Flaherty calls one of Canada’s greatest prime ministers – to U.S. Democrat Bobby Kennedy and former Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis.
"Answer the call," Flaherty says. "You will never regret it. Do it for your country. Do it for yourself. Do it to make your mother proud."
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