Jane Philpott had every excuse to quit.

In just four years in Ottawa, a parliamentary rookie, she oversaw the rollout of legal cannabis as health minister, tackled clean water for First Nations as minister of Indigenous services, and then — even more sudden than her meteoric rise — was expelled from the Liberal caucus over her sharp criticism of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had handled the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

Philpott instead ran again in this week’s federal election —“What lesson would it be for those young girls if I were to walk away?” she asked when she announced her re-election campaign in May.

In the federal election, Philpott lost her seat in the GTA riding of Markham-Stouffville, finishing third behind Liberal candidate Helena Jaczek, the former minister of health for Ontario, who also entered politics after a career in medicine.

On Friday morning, the Star spoke to Philpott about unfinished business, her campaign and her hopes for federal politics.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Question: In your statement after the election, you said you hope people don’t think it’s “naive to believe anything will change in politics.” Some people might call that a surprising position, given the tone of the campaign and your experience with the SNC-Lavalin affair. Why do you think our politics can change?

Jane Philpott: Well, I think despite the tone of the campaign on the national level, our experience within our local campaign was very positive. I was surrounded for weeks by hundreds of very positive volunteers who want to make our country better and our community better.

It’s those people that give me hope that there are innumerable Canadians who are willing to put in the hard work necessary to improve the way we do politics.

You’ve said that you found your “voice” as an Independent MP. What did you mean by that?

To a certain extent, even as a partisan MP, I was not afraid to speak up if my views were somewhat contradictory or atypical. But you are constrained to follow the basic messages and policies of the party. You are given messages every day about what you should and shouldn’t say. There are good reasons behind that, but there are times when that is counterproductive and not in the best interest of Canadians.

One of the freeing things about being an Independent was that I could share my views without having to run them through the grid of whether or not they would be seen to be acceptable to a political party.

Your campaign included things like a universal basic income project, which was not part of the Liberal platform. Are you optimistic that those kinds of ideas may be more likely to get attention during a minority government?

There are always good things about minority governments and history has shown us in Canada some of our most lasting and most cherished social policies have been established during minority governments.

It is a time when everybody is forced to work together.

You dealt with some massive files during your terms as health minister and minister of Indigenous services. What do you see of as unfinished business in those portfolios?

Well, there are a massive pieces of unfinished business in both of those portfolios, so we could spend all day talking about them.

Looking at Indigenous rights and Indigenous well-being, that is certainly one of the areas where the country has a great deal to do and a long way to go in terms of recognition and implementation of rights as well as dealing with the day-to-day realities for Indigenous peoples in this country.

Whether I got elected or not, I have committed to fighting for the rights of Indigenous people and speaking up on behalf of injustices that exist in the country. They are still issues that I will be advocating for and I’ve already heard from many First Nations leaders who have asked me to be involved in supporting them.

What is your message to voters in Markham-Stouffville who may have supported you personally or your policy positions but chose to vote for Liberal candidate Helena Jaczek for strategic reasons?

You know, I respect the people’s decisions. I’m — I’m trying to think how to put this — I’m willing to admit that I’m disappointed in the results, not so much for me personally, but for the message that it sends: that what the previous Liberal government did was OK. Because I still believe that it was not OK, either in the SNC-Lavalin issue, or in the manner in which they dealt with a caucus member who spoke on behalf of the people.

But we live in a democracy where people will make those decisions, and I will continue to do my part in another fashion to serve the people of Canada on behalf of issues that I think are important.

Do you have advice for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on how to better handle such a situation?

Well, I wouldn’t be inclined to give the prime minister advice unless he asks for it specifically. I do hope that all caucuses will follow the legislation in terms of some of the decisions that need to be made in the early days of the forming of the new government about how caucus members’ rights will be respected.

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I raised some of those issues after I was removed from caucus (in April). I hope that the media and others will hold all leaders to account for following the law.

The Liberals will no longer have a majority on the parliamentary committees that might be looking into the SNC-Lavalin affair. Do you have any hope that parliament may do more?

I would hope that Canadians would always have a government that is transparent and not afraid of the truth.

What did it mean to you to see Jody Wilson-Raybould win her seat as an Independent candidate in Vancouver Granville.

I’m delighted because I think she is certainly one of the smartest, most thoughtful and principled people I’ve ever met. To know that she will continue as a parliamentarian is good for the people of Canada.

When you announced you were going to run for re-election, you spoke of the message that would send young girls seeking to enter politics. What’s your message to them now that you’ve lost?

I don’t know that the message has particularly changed. The message is: If you believe in speaking up for the truth, you should always do that and you can’t control the outcome or the consequences. But if you see an injustice, you should speak up about it, if someone is doing something wrong, you should not be afraid to call them to account.

You can’t control everything that’s going to happen as a result of using your voice with courage, but you need to be able to hold your head high and know that you have spoken up on behalf of the best interests of the people that are depending on you.

You’ve described Canada’s democracy as “wounded.” Is it worse now than when you were elected in 2015?

I think democracy undergoes incremental changes in both positive and negative ways. Over the last four years, I think that good things have happened, and in other areas we have become increasingly divided .

I hope that those who are given the incredible privilege of serving the country as parliamentarians will do so in a way that will strengthen democracy and address those divisions, because they will have consequences for people’s lives.

What’s next for you? You have said you wouldn’t consider running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party while focusing on the federal campaign, but now that campaign is over. Is that still the case?

It’s too early for me to have formed any decisions about my future plans that I’m feeling comfortable sharing at this point. I think I need to spend time with my family and my closest friends and advisers to think through what the next step should be.

You now have to shut down both a campaign office and a constituency office. What does this period feel like?

Well, it has some similarities to a period of grief because — obviously no one died, but dreams and hopes are left behind. So there’s a certain amount of sadness.

But there’s also a lot of satisfaction that really good people came together, in a positive way, formed friendships that will last, and built a vision for how we can improve politics that will bear fruit in some other capacity, but not exactly the way that we imagined it.

Ed Tubb is an assignment editor and a contributor to the Star’s coverage of the 2019 federal election. He is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @edtubb

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