Government life

By Ken Mark
Photograph: Colin Rowe/KlixPix


	Newfoundland CA Elizabeth Marshall was a public servant and elected politician before becoming a Canadian senator

Elizabeth Marshall’s career path, leading up to her recent appointment to the Senate of Canada, borders on the unique. That’s because before reaching the red chamber she served as Newfoundland and Labrador’s auditor general and as an elected member of the provincial House of Assembly.

After retirement, most auditors-general typically take up golf or gardening. However, Marshall, now 58, entered the rough-and-tumble world of provincial politics. “Frankly, I found retirement boring,” she says. “After a year or so, someone asked if I were interested in running for office. At first, I was not interested, even skeptical. A few months later, I accepted because I knew if I refused, I would regret it later.” Calling on the determination that helped her rise to the top levels of the provincial public service, Marshall beat the incumbent by a 2:1 margin in the 2003 election. “I put my all into the campaign,” she says. “There were very few doors in the riding that I did not knock on.”

To her surprise, she came to love political life. “As a civil servant, I met with politicians almost every day,” she recalls. “We mainly discussed public policy issues. And that’s what I thought I would continue doing after being elected.”

She found she preferred working one-on-one with her constituents. “I realized that I truly enjoyed helping real people with real problems,” she says. And election victories gave her personal satisfaction. “Winning the first time was thrilling,” she says. “But people don’t really know who you are. But being re-elected is different because it is a vote of support. Voters are saying they are happy with what you are doing.”

As she assumes her senatorial duties, she expects there will be a learning curve. “I want to become more knowledgeable about the Senate — not just the rules and procedures but also its mandate.”