Emma Meldrum

Parliamentary Affairs Advisor, Senate of Canada

Bachelor of Journalism, 2016

Working in journalism, you develop a real commitment to and passion for transparency. And, working in politics … I still really hold that value close.

Emma Meldrum, BJ’16, is on a mission to raise awareness about what the Senate does for Canadians, and to encourage Canadians to make their voices heard in its chambers. She has a front-row seat to the inner workings of the Upper House, supporting Senator Bernadette Clement through writing speeches, conducting research and coordinating projects.

Emma’s career didn’t begin in the political sphere, however. ​​After graduating from King’s, she took on reporting roles at news outlets in Saskatchewan and Ontario before switching to a communications role for her home city of Cornwall. There, she worked closely with Clement, who was the municipality’s first woman mayor and the first Black woman elected to the position in the province.

Not long after Clement was appointed to the ​​​​Senate, Emma also made the move to Ottawa where she’s been involved in complex and diverse projects, ​​​​such as Indigenous language revitalization and learning about incarcerated individuals’ experience voting in federal elections.

Here, Emma discusses how the Senate impacts everyday Canadians, the rewarding nature of working in politics and the ways a journalism education at King’s can lead graduates down unexpected paths.

You began your career as a reporter and moved into advising. How do your reporting skills serve you in your current role? 

Working in journalism, you develop a real commitment to and passion for transparency. And working in politics is really fun from that angle because I still really hold that value close. There is an element of journalism that’s about connecting with people, and I think government is a lot about that, too. You want people to tell you about what their challenges are and what they need from government so that you can make changes to do things better. And in journalism, you really have to care about what’s going on in the world. Government is the same.

How do the skills you learned at King’s apply in your current role as a Parliamentary Affairs Advisor? 

The skills I learned at King’s I still use every day. Some of the work I do is on social media, so the skills we learned around video editing I still use. The writing skills are significant as well, and some of the research skills we learned at King’s I’m still applying.

I love searching for answers and doing deep dives into things, and even though I’m not in journalism anymore, I think the lessons we learned around that really apply well when you’re working for government and you’re trying to hold departments accountable.

I didn’t expect my journalism education to take me into communications or into politics, and that’s one of my favourite things about having come out of that program. It prepares you for more than you think it does. If folks are considering studying journalism, I think a piece of advice is, you don’t know where it’s going to take you. And the skills are surprisingly transferable into a lot of areas.

There’s an element of critical thinking that you learn at King’s, and that’s something that I have to transfer here. I’m always questioning, what more do we need to know? And does this reflect all the stakeholders or all the communities who are impacted?

What are the projects you and your team have worked on in the Senate that you’re most proud of?  

Our senator is a Black Francophone woman, and so she’s really interested in marginalized and racialized communities, and we talk about intersectionality a lot. One of the areas of focus that I’ve taken on within the office is around Indigenous language revitalization. I feel like, working for the Senate, there are a lot of hard days where we’re talking about really heavy things, but there are also days where we get to celebrate successes and have a window into communities where really powerful and important things are happening. There’s a lot of joy in doing this kind of work.

What are aspects of your current role that drive you and keep you motivated? 

Finding answers is a big piece. A lot of what I do is research, and sometimes that means asking questions of government departments that they maybe don’t want to have to offer answers to, which is interestingly kind of similar to some journalism work. And supporting communities who may not have access to or the ability to advocate for themselves in the same way. For example, the work that the office does around incarcerated individuals, these are not necessarily folks who are able to share their stories or to push for change in the same way that other folks might be able to. So, the work feels pretty meaningful a lot of the time.

You wrote letter to the editor of the Seaway News on modernizing the Senate. Can you elaborate on why this is so important? 

The Senate is really entrenched in our constitution, and I know a lot of people talk about abolishing it or making serious changes, and it’s really difficult to do that. And so, from an optimist point of view, knowing that the Senate is here to stay, I really think it’s important that we actually make it work for people, and that we let people know what it does, because it’s going to keep doing its work either way. I think modernizing shows a willingness to change and to adapt to the time, and I think there’s value in people knowing what we’re doing here, because it does have an impact on them. Regular Canadians engaging with the Senate can also have an impact on bills.

The Senate is an old institution, but it doesn’t need to operate like it’s still the 1870s. We can take chances that the House of Commons can’t, and we can maybe try things that the House is less likely to do. Senators are appointed with specific goals and often represent communities that wouldn’t normally be represented in the House, and so I think we have a responsibility to modernize and to reflect the needs of Canada now.

What advice can you give to young people who are looking to get involved in politics to help make the most impact early on? 

Don’t underestimate the power that one voice can have. The Senate is made up of 105 senators, but then at the committee level, there’s maybe eight to 12 of them. And so, one voice actually goes a long way.

Finding your community of people who think the same way you do can be really helpful to keep you motivated and engaged. When I’m researching and advocating around Indigenous language revitalization, it can be really discouraging if you aren’t connected to people who are working towards the same goal. You can feel really alone. But finding your community to exchange ideas and feel supported and be reminded that you’re not the only one who is working towards something can go a long way.

And there are a lot of ways to get engaged young. The page program at the House and the Senate is a really good way to connect young people to politics.