The MP to mayor pipeline: Why so many provincial and federal politicians are heading to city hall

Poke your head into any city hall across the country, and there's a chance you'll find a former MP or member of the provincial legislature sitting in the mayor's chair.

Recent municipal elections in B.C., Ontario and Manitoba saw scores of seasoned politicians making the jump — or the return — to the local level.

Andrea Horwath is among them. The former Ontario NDP leader is the newly elected mayor of Hamilton, Ont.

­"Certainly I had accomplishments that really did affect all of Ontario, as an opposition leader," she told CBC Radio's The House. ­"But the municipal order of government really is the closest to the people."

Horwath is one of at least a dozen politicians in Ontario alone who previously held provincial or federal seats and last week won their race to become mayor.

But why are so many political veterans taking their talents to the local level?

"I understand that folks may have some cynicism," Horwath said.

"It's not that you're in it for any kind of personal aggrandizement or personal agenda. You're in it to serve your community."

According to one of Canada's best-known former mayors, there's simply no better gig around.

"It is the only political job in Canada — the only executive level political job in Canada — where you are actually elected by everyone you serve," said Naheed Nenshi, who served as mayor of Calgary for just over a decade.

"The prime minister is not directly elected, premiers are not directly elected, but the mayor is," he explained. "Because of that, people have a real stake in you."

Even if voters recognize that stake, some might expect mayors to become MPs — and not the other way around.

"I think we're actually very wrong to see politics as this kind of progression, of city council being the minor leagues and then provincial and federal politics somehow being the major leagues," said Shannon Sampert, a political analyst and columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Sampert — who just helped guide new Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham's campaign to victory — is also quick to push back on the idea that politicians hopping from campaign to campaign could be looked down upon.