NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault arrives on Parliament Hill on May 19, 2011, to attend an orientation session in Ottawa.
They successfully campaigned for one of the most prestigious jobs in the country. Now they are confronted with the reality of the parliamentary grind.
Which is why most of the 108 new members of Parliament who arrived in Ottawa this week face a steep learning curve. Many have never been bosses before. Some still live with mom and dad. A few have rarely set foot in Ottawa.
Suddenly they have budgets to manage, offices to staff and journalists demanding their time.
Audrey O'Brien, the tiny dynamo who seven years ago became the first woman to be named Clerk of the House of Commons, and her staff try to make the adjustment as smooth as possible by shepherding the initiates through their early days in office, providing them with information packages and hosting half-day orientation sessions for MPs - the first of which was held on Thursday.
But the adjustment is likely to take many months. The great majority of the new MPs are New Democrats, supplemented by two dozen Conservatives, a couple of Liberals and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. Four of them were still students at McGill University when they were elected.
"Certainly this is one of the most diverse crop of new MPs in terms of people of colour, people of different backgrounds," said Ms. O'Brien, who has spent a busy week administering the oath of office individually to all 308 people who will occupy seats in the House of Commons.
Joe Oliver, the investment banker who won his seat in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence for the Conservatives and is now the Natural Resources Minister, will turn 71 this year.
Pierre-Luc Dusseault, who won the riding of Sherbrooke in the Eastern Townships of Quebec for the New Democrats, is 19. His fallback plan was to work on a golf course this summer. Instead, he will be setting up a constituency office and figuring out how to be a member of Parliament.
Before you lead, you have to know where to go
On the day after the election, just as the new MPs are enjoying the relief that comes with the end of a campaign and the euphoria that comes with victory, a package arrives at their door.
It is their introduction to their new lives.
There is a map of the parliamentary precinct, a tourist book for the National Capital Region and an Ottawa visitors guide. There is also a guide to the House of Commons, a seating plan and a 2011 parliamentary calendar.
But, most importantly, the package contains a checklist of the people the MPs must meet when they arrive on the Hill.
There is the pay-and-benefits officer, who welcomes them to the paperwork that will get money into their bank accounts. There is the finance officer, who will make sure their office budget does not go astray. There are the information services people, who will give them their BlackBerries - critical equipment on Parliament Hill. And there is the law clerk, who will issue warnings about the legal traps that await those who are signing leases and hiring staff.
Running the country means knowing when to sit, stand and bow
The second of two orientation sessions for political neophytes, which will take place next week, is a procedural primer. MPs of all stripes will be squeezed into a room to learn about the operation of Commons committees. And they will learn how to avoid embarrassment in the House - when to rise and when to sit and when to bow to the Speaker.
But it was the first session, held Thursday, where they learned the nuts and bolts of running an MP's office. The rookies were given tips on setting up their offices, administering staff and just finding their way around.
Some of these new MPs have never negotiated a mortgage, Ms. O'Brien said. "So to all of a sudden find yourself with a quarter-of-a-million-dollar budget is a pretty daunting responsibility."
Spouses and partners can come too
The toll that public life takes on a person is intense - and that extends to their families, Ms. O'Brien said.
So the spouses and partners of the new MPs are invited to the orientation sessions to learn just what they are up against.
"The 24-hour news cycle tends to be pretty pitiless, and keeping that beast fed means there is an enormous amount of attention paid to all kinds of things," Ms. O'Brien said. "I am not saying that members' families come under scrutiny, but certainly a member's life changes radically."
And of course there is the travel and the long periods of time that the MPs will spend away from their loved ones.
Some of the new politicians with young families asked whether they should move their spouses and children to Ottawa. Unfortunately, said Ms. O'Brien, there is no easy answer. "Everybody has to work things out for themselves."
Advice from veteran members of Parliament
Long-serving MPs were invited to give their take on things at the orientation session for new MPs on Wednesday.
Joe Comartin, the long-time New Democrat from Windsor, Ont., spoke about lifestyle, family relations and health.
"You've got to find that balance, and the key is communication with your family members in particular," he said. "The bottom line is it's a great job - I wouldn't be doing anything else. But it's not worth my marriage and it's not worth my relationship with my family or my health."
Joe Preston, a Conservative MP from southwestern Ontario, said there were aspects of the job that his wife likes quite a lot in terms of attending things on his behalf, but she keeps reminding him that she's not the one who got elected.
This is what some of the new MPs said as they left the orientation session
"It's a very awe-inspiring place to be. It's a place where history has been made - and the future, hopefully, we are going to play a part in it," said Dan Albas, the new Conservative MP from Okanagan-Coquihalla in British Columbia. "It's just interesting that people are all coming together and we are looking to the best interests of the country."
"I am a rookie on the Hill. I didn't do a hip operation my first day in the OR. So I am looking forward to learning a lot here and having a great time," said Kellie Leitch, the doctor who was elected to represent the Conservatives in Simcoe-Grey in Ontario. "You really need to understand you have 100,000 bosses now, people that you're responsible for or, more importantly, responsible to. And I take that very seriously."
"I think I bring to my new role some experience, but of course it is unique," said Joe Oliver, the new Natural Resources Minister who represents Eglinton-Lawrence in Toronto. "I have never been a member of Parliament before and I've never been a cabinet minister before and there is a lot to learn. And I believe that, regardless of one's experience, you have to master the new field."
"Biggest challenge? Getting to know all of the details of the life of an MP, just getting things set up. But it's things I look forward to and I am not too worried about the challenges," said Hoang Mai, the New Democrat elected in Brossard-la-Prairie in Quebec. "I think that you have to be careful of yourself basically. There will be a lot of work. It's just to manage expectations."
Editor's Note: The original newspaper version of this article and an earlier online version incorrectly stated that the Quebec riding of Sherbrooke was in the Montreal area. It's in the Eastern Townships.