Jim Prentice takes his seat in the television studio less than three hours after his resignation from cabinet. One of the most powerful ministers in the Conservative government is now apologizing for showing up for an interview rain-soaked and dishevelled.

“Sorry, but we had to run through the rain to get here,” he says with his hallmark mischievous grin. “I don’t have a car anymore.”

Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice announces he is leaving politics for a job in the private sector following Question Period in the House of Commons on Thursday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)Prentice says he gave up his car and driver — and all the other perks of being a minister — Thursday morning, the moment the federal ethics commissioner cleared him for take-off into private life.

As endearing as Prentice’s modesty has always been, he likely won’t be without a limo and driver for long as he moves from the inner circle at the cabinet table to the highest echelons of Canada’s banking board rooms.

In January, Prentice will formally step down as a Calgary MP to assume senior executive and board positions at CIBC.

In a wide-ranging interview with CBC late Thursday, Prentice said his new job at one of the country’s largest banks will allow him to “continue being passionate about the country.”

Unfortunately for Prentice, his path from Parliament Hill to Bay Street is already raising some political passions.

Specifically, critics are questioning the ethical appearances of a minister leaping straight into the executive suite of a bank regulated by the federal government, and which has large investments in virtually every sector of the economy.

Whether any of the criticism will stick to a politician nicknamed Mr. Clean remains to be seen, but Prentice is confident he has done everything by the book.

Fateful phone call

The phone call that started it all came one evening in early September as the then federal environment minister was relaxing on a restaurant patio in a small Quebec town after another day of French-language training.

Prentice has been struggling to learn French since 2001, when he began his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Progressive Conservative leadership. In political circles, it was always assumed he would run again to replace Stephen Harper.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shakes hands with Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice after he announced Thursday he would be leaving politics. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)On that September evening, the call on his cellphone was from a CIBC board member he had met casually on several occasions.

Prentice had always told his family and friends that he didn’t plan to spend more than 10 years in politics, and by his count, he had reached nine.

The call from the CIBC board member was “out of the blue,” he says.

“The conversation was not about making an offer, just whether I would consider a career move [to the bank]. I said I would be prepared to hear from people, and we left it at that.”

He called his wife, Karen, to run the idea past her. “She was ecstatic.”

Prentice says his next contact with CIBC was around the end of September.

“They were a little more specific what they were looking for. There was no offer extended to me by any means, but it became clear they were looking for somebody in this kind of [senior executive] role.”

Prentice says that in his various ministerial roles — Harper described him as nothing less than the government’s chief operating officer — he never had “anything to do” with CIBC.

No matter, “sometime in October” he went to see Mary Dawson, the federal commissioner of conflict of interest and ethics, to see “what the obligations were for somebody in my circumstance.”

Dawson told him that when he got a “firm offer” of employment, he would have seven days to report it to her and to the prime minister.

Wednesday call

Prentice says that offer came late Wednesday afternoon in a telephone call from a top executive at the bank.

He didn’t wait seven days, nor even one.

At 9 a.m. ET Thursday, he met with the ethics commissioner and her senior staff, who drafted a formal letter clearing the way for him to accept the banking position.

Prentice returned to his office on Parliament Hill, stepping out of the back seat of his government limo for the last time.

From there, he walked over to the Prime Minister’s Office and officially tendered his resignation to Harper.

Only then did he officially accept the offer from the bank.

Prentice says the most moving moment of his final day as a minister was listening to the PM’s tribute to him in the House, followed by so many well-wishers from both sides of the Commons.

Asked whether he would return to politics, perhaps as a candidate to replace Harper some day, Prentice says only: “I’m closing the door on this chapter.

“I’m now just plain ol’ Jim.”