Robert-Falcon Ouellette credits his mom's drive for success
There was one simple but important piece of advice Robert-Falcon Ouellette got from his mom, Sharon, growing up.
"[It] was to not mumble and to enunciate your words and say something important," he said.
Ouellette now uses his voice, representing Winnipeg Centre as a Liberal MP, a position he said seemed unlikely for him growing up.
"I could have been in a gang. I probably should be in a gang, but here I am in the House of Commons," he said.
With a minimum wage job, a slightly exaggerated letter of employment and a business suit, Sharon secured a $15,000 dollar loan to send her son to Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School in Calgary.
Sharon worked at a number of odd jobs in sales, cleaning, and newspaper delivery to make ends meet and pay her son's way through private school.
"She paid that loan back," he said. "There might a meal waiting in stove cooking very slowly when I'd get home at seven and my mom might come in at two in the morning."
Ouellette credits his mom's unflagging positivity and strong leadership with helping him through difficult times.
"I think she was a master leader. She wasn't a CEO of any corporation but she knew how to motivate me," he said.
Throughout all the pressures and the sleepless nights of his 2014 Winnipeg mayoral campaign, Ouellette held onto the memory of his mother's hard work and determination to keep him going.
"I thought about my mother and I said she would just keep going, [so] I'm going to keep going," he said.