Federal government adviser James Hurley influenced generations of interns

James Hurley, who died in Ottawa on March 24 at age 83, was an academic and respected constitutional adviser to six Canadian prime ministers during the height of Canada’s national unity crisis in the 1980s and 1990s.But Mr. Hurley was above all the energetic and much-loved founding director of the Parliamentary Internship Programme, who helped design a program for young university graduates on Parliament Hill that for 55 years has served as a career stepping stone for future MPs, diplomats, professors, senior public servants, business leaders and journalists.