Joe Oliver

Catherine Clark spoke to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver about his life Beyond Politics.

Joe Oliver was born and raised in Montreal where his father was a dentist and his mother a primary school teacher. Oliver pursued studies in law when the only career options allowed to boys in the Oliver family were medicine or the law. Despite a quota on Jewish students Oliver studied at McGill. As it turned out the law didn't hold much appeal to young Oliver and instead he turned to a career that was more lucrative, investment banking.

Following an MBA at Harvard Business School Oliver was recruited by the investment firm Merrill Lynch and at their urging Oliver left New York for the city of Toronto. Oliver 's career took off. Oliver excelled at Merrill Lynch and made a name for himself in the industry. From investment banking Oliver moved to securities regulation and served as Executive Director of the Ontario Securities Commission and was later named the CEO of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada. In 2008, after spending over 40 years in the industry, Oliver took a stab at politics and ran in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, a riding that voted Liberal since 1979. Oliver wasn't discouraged by the results which showed him having lost to incumbent Joe Volpe by just over 2,000 votes, instead he set out to win the riding, going door-to-door almost daily. and in 2011 was rewarded with a victory. Oliver was appointed to Cabinet by Stephen Harper in May of the same year.