As part of our coverage of the federal election, Investment Executive profiles candidates who are working or who have worked in the financial services industry.

Here we look at Paul Summerville, NDP candidate in the Ontario riding of St. Paul’s.

At first blush, Paul Summerville seems somewhat of an anomaly: a pinstriped veteran of international capitalism who represents Canada’s blue-collar party.

The New Democratic Party candidate for the high-profile downtown Toronto riding of St. Paul’s is an economist and investment banker who sees investment in health care and education as the key to Canada’s international economic success.

“Our health care, education and infrastructure strategies need to be lined up so that we’re competing against the top five countries in the world,” Summerville says. “And in order to do that, we have to ensure that our education and health-care outcomes are among the top five, or else we’ll have no choice but to compete with the bottom five.”

He points to India and China as examples of countries in which a rise in education standards has fostered economic rebirth. India’s investment in technology since the 1950s is paying dividends now as graduates of the country’s technical colleges, who used to migrate to Britain and North America, are now staying home to work in the country’s growing IT industry. According to Summerville, India’s economic boom is fuelled by a social infrastructure, not cheap labour.

On the domestic front, creation of a national securities regulator is the most important issue facing the financial services industry, Summerville says.

“Canada already has a problem of scale because of the size of our economy relative to that of the U.S.,” he says. “A national regulator would improve the efficiency of raising capital and it would improve the scale issues.”

Scale also plays a role in the matter of banks mergers, which Summerville would support, but only if the industry is reformed to meet specific conditions as outlined by the party. The reforms cover such issues as community reinvestment, community access, credit card fairness and job protection for employees.

“For the financial services industry, generally the scale issue is important because it has such a big impact on technology costs,” he says. “Most of the banks have figured out that their opportunity is North American in scope, with [the exception of] some really specialized global businesses.”

Summerville, a first-time candidate, is running against some heavyweights in his riding. He’s up against Liberal Carolyn Bennett, who holds the cabinet post of Secretary of State, and well-known broadcast journalist Peter Kent, who is running for the Conservatives.

It’s not surprising that Summerville’s vision of the country comes through a lens of global economics. Before running for office, Summerville, 48, spent more than a decade in Tokyo, including four years running Asia-Pacific businesses for TD Securities Inc.

Before that he worked for RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Jardine Fleming Bank and Deutsche Bank AG, holding positions ranging from vice-president to chief economist.

The NDP has no plans to raise taxes, he insists, citing the party’s recent announcement of $23 billion in personal tax cuts and another $3-$4 billion to be announced soon.

“In the 2004 election Jack Layton got the NDP to commit to annual balanced budgets and will subsequently commit to paying down debt of about 1% a year of GDP. With those commitments in place, the whole conversation of the economy and the government changes to: What’s a smart investment that you make as a country in order to create a strong economy? Part of the reason I was prepared to run for the NDP, given my background, is that Jack Layton totally understands that,” he says.