‘Plane Talk’ with Michelle Rempel: her interest in wine and her political triumph

Watch: In the fourth instalment of Plane Talk,  Conservative cabinet minister Michelle Rempel talks to Tom Clark about the moment she remembers finding her voice in the House of Commons and what surprises her most about life on Parliament Hill.

If it took you a few tries to pass your driver’s licence, how comfortable would you be taking the controls of a plane in flight?

That fact didn’t stop Western Economic Diversification Minister Michelle Rempel, though she only related her experiences behind the wheel after Tom Clark gave her the controls.

What else did we learn on the fly?

In addition to being a classically trained pianist, Rempel took up a unique hobby years ago that had nothing to do with her political interests — studying wine.  Years later, she says this hobby has paid off in her western diversification portfolio when it comes to vineyards in the region.

Rempel is also known to be a quick study, which came in handy when she realized she needed to overcome her fear of public speaking.

Hobby: Sommelier. She has been working on her wine education for for more than seven years.

Political triumph: Overcoming her fear of public speaking.

Regret: Taking two years to figure out the balance between political life and family life.

A full transcript of the interview is pasted below.

WATCH: The moment Rempel says she felt like she found her voice in the House of Commons.

Tom Clark:

Welcome back.  Michelle Rempel, she’s under 40, and has been a Member of Parliament for just four years, but that hasn’t stood in the way of her meteoric rise.  Elected in 2011 in Calgary Centre North, Rempel was almost immediately appointed a Parliamentary Secretary.  Two years ago, she was elevated to cabinet as the Minister of Western Economic Diversification.  She’s also a classically trained pianist and trained wine sommelier and she is the next passenger on “plane talk”.

Michelle Rempel, Minister of Western Economic Development, welcome to the plane.

Michelle Rempel:
Thanks, Tom.

Tom Clark:

And as we say, just before we take off, feeling lucky?

Michelle Rempel:

I hope so.

Tom Clark:

Here we go.  What is your greatest regret?

Michelle Rempel:

I think actually it has to do with this job and I wish I had been more honest with myself about what this job means in terms of the trade-off between the privilege it is to do the job and the time that it takes away from relationships and family.  I think to do this job you really up front have to make a commitment to sort of not let that balance go out of stride and it took me a couple of years to figure that out.

Tom Clark:

You’re a very serious person.  I mean that’s okay, you’re a cabinet minister you’re allowed to be serious but one of your other great passions has got nothing to do with innovation or policy or anything like that, it’s wine.

Michelle Rempel:

Yes.

Tom Clark:

Okay, so balance that out for me.  How does somebody who’s very intent on studying policy also go back and say my, that’s a marvelous little cab?

Michelle Rempel:

Ha, ha, ha.  Okay, I’ve been working on my wine education for seven, eight years now and it started…I wanted a hobby that could have absolutely nothing to do with work or politics or anything.  So my family is you know I come from a French Canadian background on my dad’s side and so wine’s always been part of the picture.  So when I started my courses, it was mostly to know what bottles to steal out of my old man’s vice.  So which ones the good ones were, sorry dad.  And I just have a lot of friends that are in the industry and it’s just such a vibrant community.  And when you’re studying wine, the homework’s not so bad.  Anyway, it’s been a really good hobby.

Tom Clark:

What was your best political moment?

Michelle Rempel:

Okay, so I’ve always been petrified of public speaking.  I think this shocking, right?  When I came to Ottawa, I remember standing up in the House for the first time and kind of squeaking an answer out and thinking okay, I have to fix this.  I just remember after studying quite a bit, looking at good question period clips, practicing, standing up in the House and answering a question, I think it was against Megan Leslie, who is awesome, but just finding my voice and having that moment of OK…

“First they lobby against Canadian jobs in the energy sector.  Second, the vote against climate change budgetary measures.  Third, they tell the international community to ignore our country.”

I can use my voice to affect change and it was just this like…I remember the moment.  I remember it.  I found my voice and I don’t know if I’ll ever top that.  To have that moment when you just know my opinion makes a difference and I can articulate it and people are going to listen me, it was great.  It was fantastic.

Tom Clark:

What’s the worst part about politics for you?

Michelle Rempel:

You know people that are watching your show; they might not realize that even though 45 minutes of the day you’ve got Question Period, its super adversarial.  We have a lot of partisanship in the media, in our communications but there are actually a lot of friendships that happen across the aisle.  Now I don’t want to naively that everything is roses but it’s the interpersonal relationships across the aisle that I think a lot of people don’t see that actually keeps you wanting to come back.  So when you talk about the worst moment, you have to qualify it.  The onus is on us to elevate the tone of the debate.  It’s up to each one of us.  That’s why I’m not a heckler.  Also, I don’t have the voice for it.  I’m very trembly as you can hear right now.

Tom Clark:

What was the biggest surprise about politics for you?

Michelle Rempel:

Just so many…so many things.  First of all, I think the breadth of subject matter that you’re responsible for, right?  Like think about how many portfolios there are in government and you have to be able to not just speak to it but be able to analyze policy.  So you really have to think about what you’re communicating on because people are listening and they’re making decisions based on government is going.

Tom Clark:

We’ve been up here for a while now.

Michelle Rempel:

Okay.

Tom Clark:

You’re going to fly the plane.

Michelle Rempel:

Um, they don’t reach.

Tom Clark:

There we go.

Michelle Rempel:

I think we’re good.

Tom Clark:

Okay, now to go up, you just pull back a little bit.

Michelle Rempel:

Okay.

Tom Clark:

Okay and you go up.  And then to go down…

Michelle Rempel:

Ahhhhhh (scream followed by laughter).  Don’t put that on TV.  Oh my God!

Tom Clark:

That was fun.

Michelle Rempel:

No it wasn’t.

Tom Clark:

Bring it right around to the right.

Michelle Rempel:

I’m just cautious.  Okay, Tom, it took me three times to get my driver’s license; three times.

Tom Clark:

Oh now you tell me.

Michelle Rempel:

Okay, I’m done, you take the reins.

Tom Clark:

Okay, I’ll take over, I got the reins.

Michelle Rempel:

Okay.  I’m impressed.  I’m seriously impressed.  Tom Clark is a good pilot.  I can attest to that.

Tom Clark:

Oh that’s going to make air.