In a few short months, MP for Battle River-Crowfoot Kevin Sorenson will be leaving public office. This comes after almost two decades as MP in the area, first as a member of the Canadian Alliance, and now the Conservative Party of Canada.
In that time he has taken many portfolios and chaired high profile committees including the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan and the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.
In 2013 he was welcomed into Stephen Harpers’ Cabinet as Minister of State for Finance.
The Mail sat down with Mr. Sorenson to reflect on his career in politics, his accomplishments and what he sees for the future of Canada.
Q. About 20 years ago you decided to get into politics, what were those motivating factors then and how have they changed?
KS. We were always encouraged at home growing up to become involved in public service. My grandfather had been a councillor for 32 years in our county, my dad had been an MLA. I had been involved in the Reform Party and I was on the board. In 2000 we had a Member of Parliament Jack Ramsay who had got in a lot of trouble 26 years before as an RCMP member. We were told he wouldn’t be able to run. I had a young family and wasn’t too interested, but as time went on more and more people asked me if I would consider running. We put it off until my wife said ‘what if this is really where you were supposed to be?’ With only a few weeks left, the nomination had already been called, I threw my hat into the ring. We won the nomination and went right into the election and won that.
Q. Was it what you expected?
KS: No, when we came into it in 2000, Stockwell Day had just become our leader and then we had a meltdown in our party. A lot of people didn’t like the leadership and so they left our party and sat with the PC party. It looked like our party was in real disarray. I thought ‘what did I get myself into?’ I loved the constituency work but I sure hated the fact there wasn’t solidarity in our party. I always support the leader that was democratically elected. I supported Preston Manning and supported Stockwell, but when he resigned as leader and was going to run again, I was one of the ones that helped recruit Stephen Harper to come. I remember travelling to Prince Albert and meeting with him and trying to convince this young Stephen Harper to come back and lead our party. From there, he was able to win the leadership but also unite our party. Because I was involved and in opposition, I was a lead critic in a portfolio. From there on it has been a lot of what I expected. I never expected I would make it into cabinet. I thought I would just work hard as a constituency guy. Harper asked me to chair a number of committees, and then he called, and I thought he was going to ask me to chair another committee, but no, he asked me into cabinet. That wasn’t expected, but it was a real honour.
Q. You mention right away that your wife played a role in making this decision, Tell me about that support?
KS: I would have never been able to do this if it wasn’t for Darlene. She is everything. My relationship with her is strong and solid. She is the greatest support and wife anyone could wish for. A lot of times I missed piano recitals, the kids’ hockey games, she was there and provided stability. I really appreciated Drumheller because when there were events, they said ‘bring your family, don’t just show up and give a speech, we welcome your entire family.’ When I came home on weekends, we tried to do that as much as we could. She has been the rock for our family. They say if you can come into politics with your integrity and family and if you can leave with integrity and family, count yourself a success.
Q. A great part of your satisfaction came from constituency work. When you were called to cabinet, was that more difficult?
KS: It takes away from the time in the riding. When you go to cabinet, there were weeks when I would leave Ottawa Thursday night and I was giving a speech in Halifax Friday morning. And then you are off somewhere Friday night and Saturday you are in Toronto and then in Vancouver Saturday night. That was what our Ministers had to do. There were weekends where I would think, there is something going on in Camrose or Drumheller, but you are sitting in Winnipeg or off to New Brunswick. It comes with the territory, but the entire job, I liked it and am certainly going to miss it.
Q. Can you pinpoint anything that you could say gave you the most satisfaction from all of these things?
KS: Every Aspect gave me satisfaction. I would go to work in the morning, and I enjoyed it when I went and enjoyed it when I came home. I enjoyed the fact I have been able to represent this riding of Battle River-Crowfoot. I have enjoyed meeting with people, councils and mayors, and reeves. I enjoyed drafting legislations and trying to get private members bills through and I have enjoyed working on the budget and fighting for lower taxes and fighting to have things brought into rural Alberta. I take huge satisfaction we were able to get Stephen Harper elected as Prime Minister, and that we were able to give good government.
Q: Was there ever a moment that, when you came home after a day’s work and said ‘this is why I do this’?
KS: There have been lots of those moments. Like helping someone when they are in trouble. You see a lot of the glory things, but you also see people whose EI cheques haven’t shown up or there are people having trouble with immigration or work visas or lost their passport. Those are every day things we work on in our office, so I think a lot of those little things and constituents might not understand why there is a degree of satisfaction in some of them, but anything we can help people with I find a great deal of satisfaction.
Q: What is the most frustrating aspect of the job.
KS. With every election we have lost I have been frustrated. The best day in opposition still doesn’t come close to the worst day in government. When you are in government you can accomplish things and change policy and direction. I always felt when we were drafting budgets we were making a real difference, we are putting money back into the pockets of single moms or parents and are helping them with raising their family. Generally speaking, I am an optimist and I don’t like to dwell on the negative, so I always look for the rose in the middle of the thorns. You can be moved by frustration. Frustration can move you to excel and do better.
Q. What was the most memorable moment you had in parliament?
I remember my maiden speech that laid out my great thanks to the community and I remember my final speech where I looked back at our accomplishments.
When I look back there were two days that were very negative; shortly after the 9/11 attack and after the shooting in parliament. That probably affected me emotionally more than I knew at the time. Knowing that just hours before Nathan Cirillo had been shot and murdered at the war memorial and then the terrorist made his way up to parliament hill, commandeered one of the Minister’s vehicles, run into parliament with his rifle shooting, trying to get at our Prime Minister. The speeches that followed that day by all political leaders were remarkable speeches. Calls for unity, calls for coming together, a call that all parties put aside their partisanship for the moment to just thank God they are still there and alive. Parliament resumed shortly after that. Those were memorable times in parliament.
Q. As you noted, in drastic times there is unity, but when will we have to stop calling for unity, and just be unified?
KS: We have a large country geographically with various cultures and parts of the country with aspirations for different things, so there will be those challenges. I think we will always have those challenges, but I think also we need to realize what we have here in Canada. When I got into politics, I knew everything that I was upset with. The more I got in, the more I realized we have the greatest country in the world. Despite all the challenges, this country I love. I believe it can be better. We have to realize what we are trying to build. Are we trying to build a one size fits all for everybody, or are we saying yes we have differences within this country but we need to be unified and we need to recognize that there is always diversity, but we can still be unified.
Q. In 5- 10- years when people talk about your legacy, what do you hope they will say?
KS: I will leave that to the people. I have always said I want to work as hard as I can. In such a big riding we would get 16 invitations in one weekend. There are always people who are going to say where is our MP, and you just can’t spread yourself around. I wanted to work hard and represent with honour and dignity in the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot. I never wanted to embarrass my constituents or my family. I always tried to work with every council and treat people with respect and I’ll leave it up to someone else to define a legacy
Q. What is next for Kevin Sorenson?
KS: We’ll see. They tell you not to make any major plans in the first three or four months. I want to spend time with my family. I may end up doing some work and volunteer in the community. I have no desire to use my being a Member of Parliament to springboard into other greater things. I don’t think there is a greater thing than representing this constituency, and I am going to miss it.
Q. Is there anything you feel you left on the table?
KS: I wish we could have a better senate. I believed early on in a Triple E Senate with an elected, equal and empowered senate. We live in a region and if we simply say “abolish the senate” this is one group that can protect regions that are underpopulated. The Senate was set up to do that. There are more seats in Toronto than there is in Alberta or Saskatchewan, so we need something to offset that and that is one area I wish we could have fixed.
Q. What are your impressions on the future of Canada?
KS: I am always an optimist and I think there is a new generation coming up and I hope and pray Canada will always be a strong democratic country where we appreciate the rights and freedoms we have, a free press and freedom of religion and freedom of speech. I fear there are some issues you cannot speak about or the media tries to make you look like a radical. I think there is a cost to protecting those things and I think it is worth it. That is where I think we have to look forward. A lot of very fine young people never realized their dreams, they fought in World War I and World War II to protect those freedoms and I hope they are not eroded away by edict. It is worth fighting for this county, and worth putting in an effort to make it better.
