Political staffer Shugart began his career in Ottawa in 1980 as a political staffer, where he was a constitutional policy advisor to
Progressive Conservative (PC) leader
Joe Clark and later policy director under
Brian Mulroney, when the PCs formed the
Official Opposition. Mulroney formed government in 1984 and Shugart worked as a senior policy advisor to the
minister of national health and welfare,
Jake Epp. In 2010, he joined
Employment and Social Development Canada as its deputy minister, where he worked on labour market and income security initiatives.
Senate Ian Shugart was appointed to the Senate on September 26, 2022, by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after a career in government spanning over 40 years. Health issues delayed his maiden speech in the upper chamber until June 2023."Last week in this place, many honourable senators spoke about the risks to democracy in our country. Today, I would like to add what I hope might be a useful contribution to those observations," Shugart said. "I am going to speak about the idea of restraint — an idea, a discipline, that has proven essential in our constitutional and institutional development." == Retirement ==