If you ask my friends and colleagues in university what was one thing I did well back then, they’d say I hosted really good parties. Not just any kind of party, election debate night parties. Perhaps the geekiest of parties. Whether it was general elections in the UK or Canadian federal elections, I had a knack for bringing people from diverse stripes together to have a fun evening. Some parties, I remember vividly, got pretty heated with clashes of views on policy issues but that was part of the draw for people. It wasn’t a “be with your bubble” kind of party — and they loved that. 

One of the projects I was tasked with during my role at Public Policy Forum, my first job after my graduate studies, was to host a debate night party for the 2008 federal election. You can imagine my excitement: “Wait, I get to organize this party for work?!” It was a night to rememb