RC121 NovDec 2025 - Magazine - Page 9
“Bruce Power is proud to foster meaningful partnerships with
community organizations to support the great work that is being
done to improve lives, protect the environment, celebrate culture,
encourage education and build healthy communities.”
WDBA
The $6.4-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge project connected the bridge deck in the summer of 2024 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
In the eye of the storm
In 2001, Paul Martin—Jean Chrétien’s Minister of Finance—recruited Murphy to join him as a senior political
advisor. That relationship would propel Murphy into the
heart of Canadian government, when he was appointed
Martin’s chief of sta昀昀 when Martin succeeded Chrétien as
Prime Minister.
Murphy’s 昀椀rst day on the job working for Martin was
September 11, 2001.
“It was quite a day,” he says, understatedly. “You
arrive trying to 昀椀gure out where the washroom is—and
instead you’re helping stabilize the global 昀椀nancial system.”
The experience was both intense and transformative.
“The skill set of senior political sta昀昀 is phenomenal,”
Murphy re昀氀ects. “Everything comes at you at a furious
pace. You have to be ruthlessly focused on why you’re
there, cut through the noise, and organize people toward
a goal—without panicking.”
The aftermath of 9/11 demanded quick decisions on
everything from airport security to cross-border trade and
national budgeting. “We basically did a national budget
from zero in eight weeks,” Murphy recalls. “Normally
that takes a year.” The crisis required rebuilding institutions—growing the border service, shoring up the econ-
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omy, and coordinating with Washington—all under constant
pressure. “It was an amazing learning experience,” he says,
“and it taught me lessons in project management that I still use
today.”
Discovering P3s
With the end of the Liberals 12-year run in the 2006 federal
election, Murphy returned to private practice, determined to
channel his political experience into something constructive. “I
was tired of 昀椀ghting about things,” he admits. “And what was
emerging at that time was the P3 model—a mix of public and
private that drew on my background in construction and government. It was a space where I could actually build things.”
He joined McMillan LLP, where he helped establish one
of Canada’s 昀椀rst legal practices devoted to public-private
partnerships. Because the 昀椀eld was so new, few had formal
expertise. “It was a world where it was better to be lucky than
good,” he laughs. “I arrived just as it was expanding.”
Murphy also moved quickly to cement his credentials,
publishing academic work on the P3 model and proposing a
course on it to the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. “They
said, ‘Good idea,’” he recalls. “So, I became an adjunct professor
in P3s before I’d even done one.” Soon enough, he was advising
on major projects and authoring key texts, including Construction Law in Canada (co-authored with Justice Len Ricchetti)
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