PoliticalTheoryFromAB

I'm currently in my 4th (out of 5) year at a Canadian University. I'm doing a combined Political Science-Economics Honors BA. I'm fascinated by 20th century moral/political philosophy as it pertains to ideas of justice, fairness, and distribution within liberal societies (Rawls, Capability Theory, (Bleeding Heart-)Libertarianism, etc.) and some economic applications of that (basic income, NIT, etc.) I haven't taken the GRE (thinking this Winter). I don't have any publications. I have no academic work experience (RA, think-tanks, etc.). I'm sitting around a 3.9 cumulative GPA so far. My faculty have been relatively unhelpful so far ("go read some articles, find out who you like, etc.") and I'm kind of at a loss on several fronts. 1) How Do you Make Your CV stand out (and how much does that matter)? If I want to end up at an upper-middle tier university, is it a fact that I'll have to do 5 years of related work experience to add to my CV? 2) MA v. PhD I've found a couple professors I love at other schools, but the reputation/placement history of their grads is... pretty sub par. I'd love to maybe go, do an MA with one of them to refine my own ideas and then apply for a PhD at a larger school if my heart is still in it at that point. Is it harder applying to a PhD program from a different MA program, or getting in an MA program at a large school? 3) When Should I Start my application process? Is there a convenient (and good) "How to Apply to Grad School" guide out there somewhere? Google has let me down so far... 4) How do I even find out if this is something I can do? I'm the first member of my family to go to University (small town Alberta) and none of my extended family members are professionals or academics. Money is tight, but not non-existent. I'm not wedded to a particular geographic area. I love the subject manner, and I'm excited to do my thesis, but I really don't know what I can do to find out if this is something I can actually do. Any help/tips/charity would go a long way, and I wish I would have found this forum sooner! Thank you anyone for any tips!