This week, we talk about the days and weeks immediately following a new MLA’s election and ask the question: how do you learn to be an MLA?

In this week’s episode : an update on our production schedule, and a story about learning how the legislature works by protesting what happens inside.

What do a lawyer, a baptist minister, a farmer and a nurse have in common? At one point, they've all walked into the legislature to serve as MLAs. In episode two of Off Script, hear the stories that turned regular citizens into lawmakers, and the challenges they faced along the way.

What's it like traveling across Canada to talk to former MPs about their life in politics? In last week's podcast, you heard from Alison Loat, one of the co-authors of the book "Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out on Canada's Failing Democracy". In this special episode, we’re sharing an extended version of the interview we did with Alison for that episode, where we explore the impact that book has had on Canadian Politics.

What do former MPs have to say about the health of Canadian democracy? Not much good news, accoriding to Michael MacMillan. In last week's podcast, you heard from Michael MacMillan, one of the co-authors of the book "Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out on Canada's Failing Democracy". In this special episode of the podcast, you'll hear a keynote address that Michael gave when he visited Halifax two years ago for the Springtide Better Politics Awards.

The first full episode of the Off Script podcast is here. It plots the path for where this podcast is taking you, and gives you a peak at some of the key findings from the MLA Exit Interviews.

Clarrie MacKinnon recounts the kinds of things he would end up doing when government services fell short of his constituents needs.

In this week’s story, former cabinet minister, and Truro-Bible Hill MLA, Eleanor Norrie, remembers what she describes as the all-too-frequent experience of showing up as a woman when the people she was scheduled to meet were waiting for a man.

Here's the first of the Off Script 'prepisodes' - short anecdotes and stories that kept us laughing, captivated, and in suspense during the interviews, meant to keep you doing the same until we launch full episodes in the coming weeks. This week's story comes from former MLA and deputy speaker, Francene Cosman, where she describes her most harrowing day in the speaker's chair.