Here's Ranbir Singh and his experience as Toronto mayor assisstant

Have you ever had a job that really stuck out in your mind?

Yeah, so I would say the best job I’ve ever had was working for the mayor of Toronto - John Tory - from December 2014 up until recently.

What were your main roles in this job?

I did a little bit of everything. I wrote some of his speeches, I did a lot of community outreach, so I met with a lot of different ethnic communities, that made up the city of Toronto. I wrote logistics and event notes, handled the day to day tour operations of the mayor and met with stakeholders in order to build a consensus by legislative means

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Wow, so there’s a lot of responsibility in there. Would you say this made the job stressful?

Definitely. It’s a political environment, and when working in that kind of environment, you need to know at a little bit of everything. You need to be very hands on and there’s a lot of work to get done. Especially with a boss or leader with a large mandate who wants to accomplish quite a lot. So it depends on who you’re working with, and their work ethic and what they expect of you.

Did you enjoy this job? I can imagine you have very mixed feelings towards it.

There’s a uniqueness to the job itself. Politics is a pretty tough gig. Some people think it’s very toxic. These days there’s a lot of polarity. There’s a lot of decanting opinions from extreme political perspectives, so it’s very hard to build consensus these days. In the context of where I was working, I was working in city hall, where there were 44 counselors, and you have to deal with different levels of government and their different policies, and what you're trying to do is collaborative work, not only with other counselor colleagues and their staff members and staff from the different levels. but you also have to deal with different political spectrum, and if they don’t align with your job and beliefs, then the job can get very difficult.

How long did you work there?

About 4 and a half years in an official capacity, but the only reason I got the job was because I spent 6 months working non-stop as a volunteer. I had to show a lot of visibility amongst the thousands of other volunteers to show that I could do the work before I could actually do it officially.

What kind of volunteering are we talking about here?

Well for me the volunteering was part of a programme I did to get a certificate at college, and other students were doing the same kind of thing. Even after I had gained my certificate and worked the required hours, I continued to work it like it was a job. I volunteered and did it for 60 hours a week. I believed in the cause and I believed in something greater than myself at the time, and in 2014, we were up against something very serious. There were a lot of Torontonians that were disenchanted by the direction the city was going, especially with the incumbent mayor Rob Ford. He was known as a bit of a populist and he had very extreme views as to how he was going to administer the city of Toronto. What we wanted to do at the time was we wanted to brand John Tory in a different light - as a mayor who would be a lot more centred, a lot more professional and qualified to do the job. He won that election with only 40,000 more votes than his opponent, so it was a very tight race. But whatever we did worked.

Was it what you were expecting? Any surprises?

Well I think that because it’s politics, you don’t know what to expect in the day-to-day life, but I did generally understand the duties that were assigned to me. As a volunteer, being there almost everyday and doing a variety of different things, I got a good understanding of what politics is, and once I got the job, I pretty much kept up the same pace. They say in politics that you don’t ever stop campaigning, even when you’ve won. So the day you win, you’re still campaigning for your next term. So the pace of the mayor is outstanding. He works very hard, and that kind of dedication influenced the work ethics of a lot of those around him to do just as well. True leaders are ones that work harder than anyone else on the team. What I did is I tried to work as hard as I could. I probably at times worked too hard, took it too seriously and literally. Maybe I didn’t have as much fun as some other guys. I took it in a professional manner, because it was a very tough job, probably the hardest job I’ve ever had. So I was used to my day-to-day tasks. What I wasn't prepared for were the curveballs thrown by other levels of government, not adhering to what we want for the city of Toronto, which I guess is normal in politics. People are always going to disagree with you, and it’s your role to try and build consensus with fellow counsellor colleagues. It’s a hard task.

Can you give me an example of a curveball that you had to deal with?

Of course. There were a lot of protests. These stemmed from the anger amongst the black community about a policy in Toronto called carting. This is where police officers were able to record information if they were to ask for it in regards to a stop or an arrest. I don’t know all the details, but this as well as other issues within the black community such as poverty were issues that all levels of government had to learn to deal with. This was during the whole black lives matter movement, which added to the fury towards all levels of government, not just the local one. So dealing with the protests was something that we definitely didn't see coming. The best thing we did was reach out to members of the city of Toronto’s civil staff who had connections to certain stakeholders within the community. This was done to get all leaders around a table, with the aim to be to reach an agreement.

What’s your favourite memory from the job?

You get to meet celebrities. That made the job really cool. I met the premier of Ontario, the Prime Minister, other ministers. My personal favourite was Harjit Singh. Being Sikh myself and him being the first sikh minister of defence in all of the western hemisphere, that was really cool. I also got to meet Yo Yo Ma, other celebrity chefs, local and national celebs and Chris Hadfield as well.

Why did you leave?

For me, it did get too stressful, I was overweight, and I literally burnt out. People around me could see that, and it was pretty bad. I had kept the same pace for three and a half years at least, until I reached that point. I then got the chance to take care of my health and I took it. I had other personal issues as well. I did the best I could in that position and went as far as I could. It was stressful, and I had to think about the long term aspects of my career. Politics will always be there. For me, I wanted to go back to school and improve my skill sets, and get the technical aspects of a planning degree. When I was in the office, all I dealt with was the stakeholders. I didn't get to do the things I wanted to, like build buildings and developments. I wanted to learn more about the technical aspects of the job.

What do you miss most about the job?

I think the pay was pretty modest in my position. It wasn't about the pay, it was about being part of a team, a mandate that your leader or boss would have. I think we accomplished quite a lot of what we set out to do in 2014, but there’s still a bit left. For me I think it was the pace of the work that was great. Getting to meet all the people I met was huge as well.

What advice would you give to someone at the start of the same job?

You need to clean up all your social media accounts. It doesn't matter if you're in the public or private sector, we all get so scrutinized today really diligently by your employers. So if you're gonna be on social media, just be careful what you say, because it will catch up to you. Be careful who you scrutinize because these people could be your future employer one day. Don’t burn bridges, and be professional with your account. Or at least set up a professional account aside from your personal one, and just be careful what you say online.

If offered, would you go back?

That’s a tough question. I’ve done a lot of soul searching recently. There’s a lot of issues I have with politics, and since it’s always going to be there, then staying away from it as much as I can is an idea. For me, in my profession of planning, I’m going to have to deal with different levels of politics here and there. There’s a lot of aspects that I would love to go back to, but at the moment I’m exploring other opportunities. I think I deserve that. I’ve been in the public sector for 5 years. I’ve sacrificed a lot - a social life, personal life, family time - a lot of things I didn't get a chance to do when I was working in the public sector. I’m looking forward to seeing what opportunities there are in the civil sector and see what else is possible. If I like someone well enough, then that could draw me back in on a voluntary basis. Maybe if continue to build my network, then I could have a future in politics as well. I’ll just have to see.

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