Helping grads ascend Parliament Hill.(Parliamentary Internship Programme)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Growing up in Aylmer, Que., across the Ottawa River from the nation's capital, Alexandria Sjoman has spent most of her 24 years living near Canada's political power base.

Sjoman recently got a first-hand look at how it works when she was one of 10 graduates selected for the Parliamentary Internship Programme, administered by the Canadian Political Association and sponsored since 1992 by the Canadian Bankers Association, among others.

During the 10-month program, each intern spends half of his or her time working for a member of Parliament from the government backbenches and the other half assigned to the office of an opposition MP. Interns also participate in weekly seminars, write research papers on Canada's parliamentary system and prepare two bilingual bulletins each year, which are distributed to sponsors.

When the program was established 30 years ago, it was intended to provide extra assistance for non-cabinet-level MPs or those heading political parties, many of whom "were lucky if they had a secretary," explains Peggy Morgan, manager, government relations, for the CBA in Ottawa.

The program was also intended to give graduates experience in political life at the federal level. In Sjoman's case, it helped opened a few doors.

After working as an intern in the office of Ontario Liberal MP John Godfrey, the history undergraduate from St. Francis Xavier University ...