KEVIN PAGE ON ‘PUSHING THROUGH THE OBSTACLES’

What’s the best way to be heard?

If you’re a public servant, or you’re trying to support policy debate, I think you want to be heard in a way that people trust what you are saying. And so how do you engender trust in that message? And to somebody like me that deals with numbers, can we make these numbers real for people?

What has been your biggest hurdle?

We all have doubts about our abilities to do things. And so, getting over those personal doubts, that anxiety, that fear of failure potentially — back to the word “fear” — these are hurdles. More often than not, I go back to being able to work with people on really important issues, those obstacles, they go away. And I think stubbornness, persistence, is a potential quality that’s important as well. Pushing through the obstacles.

Who is your hero?

It’s incredible what Mandela did in South Africa. How does one person bring about that kind of change, working with other people? Or Gandhi in India, or Martin Luther King. I have pictures of these people, I’ve read their biographies.

What do you hope is your legacy?

I don’t really think about legacy ... If the Parliamentary Budget Office becomes a strong, sustainable institution, I’d feel really good about that.