In Finland, the national parliament and local councils have a combined seat count of over 10,000. Even though there is some overlap, that still means there are thousands of people active in elected politics.
In this year's municipal elections alone, there were 29,950 candidates competing for 8,586 seats across 309 municipalities in mainland Finland. Municipal councils tend to be relatively large, and the political parties are eager to recruit anyone as long as you agree with their basic values.
I personally (or through someone) know one former MP, a couple of local councilmembers, and several former candidates.
Though I don't really know how all of this is elsewhere. I'd like to have some perspective as to how it is in your country.