Right now, Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Alex Nuttall’s most important jobs are being a father, husband, and unpacking his new family home — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Now that he’s taking a step back from federal politics by choosing not to seek re-election in the 2019 federal election, Nuttall sat down with BarrieToday this week to get candid about what he’s learned throughout his 13-year political career, the current state of politics, the importance of having a work/life balance and his future aspirations.
Nuttall has been a familiar face on the Simcoe County political scene for more than 13 years. He originally ran for city council, in Ward 10 in Barrie, back in 2003.
“I dropped out of high school to run for Barrie city council when I was 18,” he said. “I took a class in high school called Civics and Careers. It kind of opened up opportunities I wouldn’t have known were available to me, and I saw an opportunity to give back and be a part of positive change.”
“I really loved that,” he added.
When Nuttall ran for council in 2003, he lost the seat to his high school principal; however, the loss didn’t deter him. In 2006, he took another shot at the seat, this time winning. He became the youngest sitting city councillor in Barrie at 21 years old.
“It was pretty incredible to get that check mark, and for people to put their faith in me at such a young age. Looking back, I probably had very little to offer aside from ideas and good representation,” he said with a laugh.
Nuttall looks back on the nine years he spent on Barrie city council fondly.
“I found at city council, there was no hill I couldn’t die on,” he said with a laugh. “My background is one that I take very seriously. I grew up in government housing. I’ve never been an insider. I’ve never been somebody who understood the existing establishment.
“When I went to city council, it was from the perspective of an outsider, perhaps sometimes a little too reforming for some of the other voices around the table. There were a lot of individuals at the table who didn’t understand me at first,” he said.
When he looks back on his early political career, Nuttall recalls being a sole vote against a casino in Barrie’s downtown. When the issue came up for a final vote, all other councillors had switched to Nuttall’s side.
He sees parallels between that issue and the current safe injection site issue being dealt with at the council table.
“It feels very similar. There’s a silent majority, which is what I call them. Sometimes someone will bring forward a proposal that doesn’t accurately represent the public view,” he said.
“I don’t think the fabric of the city has changed. This is still Simcoe County. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. If you live here, we want a good economy, a strong downtown and we want to be able to take care of the people who call this place home,” he added.
Choosing conservatism
When discussing why he decided to make the jump to federal politics in 2015, Nuttall thinks back to that Civics and Careers class he took when he was 18.
“The project at the end of that semester was, pick three things you want to do when you grow up. I chose prime minister of Canada, member of Parliament and teacher,” he said. “Nothing against teachers, but I really went after those goals in Ottawa from that point on.”
“To me, it was a natural step.”
When deciding on his own party affiliations when he made the leap, Nuttall thought long and hard about which party’s values aligned with his own.
“For me, I grew up with pretty much nothing in terms of financial means. What made me a Conservative was ... I was never looking for someone to give me anything but an opportunity.
"It’s kind of like, I don’t want someone to feel a responsibility that I make ends meet. I do want people to feel a responsibility that each of our young people should have an equal opportunity to make ends meet,” he said.
“That’s where the conservatism aligned with my personal belief system, in that I don’t want tax money to just go out frivolously. I want it to be used for a very focused approach,” said Nuttall. “Every child should have hope that they’re going to have great opportunity in their lifetime to be successful, and that success isn’t just measured by money.”
In 2015, Nuttall won the Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte race by such a slim margin, a recount was ordered. He defeated Liberal candidate Brian Tamblyn by 108 votes.
“This is a very interesting riding,” said Nuttall. “We’ve got a lot of unionized workers in the riding that typically don’t support the Conservative Party. The fact that we pulled off an election here in 2015 was a huge feather in my cap. It was because of a well-run campaign locally, and we focused on local issues.”
Within the Conservative Party of Canada, Nuttall says all party members don’t always agree, but he sees party membership as being like a marriage.
“I think every party has a coalition of support they put together, and there’s going to be butting heads. When I was door knocking, sometimes people would say, ‘I don’t agree with this within the Conservative Party.’ Sometimes it would be stuff that I don’t agree with within the Conservative Party,” he conceded.
“I say this to them: 'Are you married or do you have a partner? If so, how often do you guys agree? Is it 100 per cent of the time? On the big things, you probably agree 90 per cent of the time. The other 10 per cent you have to rationalize and work through it. There’s always going to be things you don’t agree on, but you give in, work together and grow,'” he said. “It is no different in the Conservative Party of Canada, or the Liberal Party of Canada, or the Green Party.”
“If you agree with the Conservative Party 70 per cent of the time, you’re probably doing better than you are in your marriage,” he joked.
The toxicity of current-day politics
For the 15-plus years Nuttall has been interested and involved in politics, he’s seen the political landscape change.
“It’s not for the better,” he said. “This is something I take really seriously. It’s a key driver behind me leaving politics.”
One of the motivating factors behind Nuttall’s choice to not run again is his work/life balance, and missing key milestones in his kids’ lives. Nuttall’s son Caleb is five years old. His daughter Anabella is three.
“Seeing their dad for two nights a week, 32 weeks out of the year isn’t enough for me,” he said. “My son is amazing. It crushed me one night when he came to me wanting to play hockey, but I couldn’t because I had to go to Ottawa. My daughter – she thinks far too highly of me. My God, I just want to protect them.”
“If I’m successful in politics but I let my own children fall between the cracks, I don’t want to be judged based on that,” said Nuttall.
Nuttall recalls that this year, one of the churches in the area had a dad/daughter dinner.
“The idea is to treat your children with the respect you want to be treated with, and the respect they deserve. I took a photo of Anabella and I going out to this dinner. I bought her a rose. She didn’t eat dinner, she held her rose the whole night,” said Nuttall.
After posting the photo of the occasion on Twitter, Nuttall says negative comments came quickly.
“This left-wing activist went on Twitter and started insinuating sexual improprieties. I was thinking, do I want my daughter reading that one day? No, I don’t. I want them to have a nice upbringing and not to be subject to that type of disgusting crap. I don’t even know what else to call it,” he said.
“At this point the cons heavily outweigh the pros when it comes to being involved in public life.”
Nuttall sees a lot of negativity in current-day politics that weren’t as common when he first started.
“For a guy who preaches hope and opportunity, the negativity is just too much. I have a feeling right now that it’s not OK ... to be who I am,” he said. “The very personal attacks that have been aimed at me and my family and people from my party that have zero basis (in fact) are just disgusting. When you try to get into a real conversation or communication about it, it’s a trap.
“The reality is the politics that are being played don’t allow someone to have a real conversation and come up with real solutions to real problems that exist.”
Nuttall lists conversations around financial equity, race and religion as just some examples of topics that can turn ugly or personal, depending on who is doing the debating.
“So when I say, I don’t want 500,000 immigrants coming into Canada a year, immediately somebody will say I’m a racist. Meanwhile, I am an immigrant. I was born in Liverpool,” he said.
“The economy actually needs immigration to grow. It’s actually a good thing for our economy. It just needs to be managed in a way the benefits those who are coming so we have the resources to help people who are coming adjust to their new society.
“But you can’t have that conversation today because you’re either deemed to be a racist or somebody who wants to change the fabric of the country. The reality is, 99 per cent of Canadians are in the middle and are neither of those things, and they’re being forgotten in the conversation.”
Fifteen years ago, Nuttall says he feels conversations weren’t yet happening that way.
“Some of it’s social media and activism on the left and right. But you can’t blame social media for the conduct of individuals. You blame individuals for the conduct of individuals. There certainly is an emboldened activist right and activist left," he said.
Nuttall has toured university campuses during his time as an MP, and has spoken out against emerging far-right rhetoric in Canada and abroad.
“I spoke with young conservatives and said to them, 'Do not get involved in the far-right or anti-immigration beliefs,'” he said. “Stay away from that, because that’s not what Conservatives stand for. They stand for hope, freedom and opportunity. You can’t be a hope-and-freedom conservative and also say we should shut the borders.
“When I look at that, and then I look at what’s being said about me, it’s really hard to understand and rationalize why I should put my children through that,” he said.
On March 21, Barrie Ward 2 Coun. Keenan Aylwin made a post on his public Facebook page concerning the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The first-term councillor referenced the white supremacist attack in New Zealand, and said there are people in positions of power in Canada using racist and white-supremacist rhetoric for political gain in Canada. Aylwin urged readers to make connections between that rhetoric and violence.
“We have two Conservative MPs in Barrie that have been silent on their leader’s appearance on the same stage as a neo-Nazi sympathizer, Faith Goldy, at United We Roll Rally. This is unacceptable and it is dangerous. They are playing footsies with white supremacists who have inspired violence through Yellow Vest Canada social media channels and elsewhere,” wrote Aylwin, who tagged Barrie-Innisfil MP John Brassard and Nuttall in the post and continued to urge the MPs to denounce white supremacy and offer an apology.
Nuttall and Brassard both sued Aylwin for defamation, each seeking $100,000 in damages. For our coverage of the issue, click here.
“Are you kidding me?” said Nuttall. “I’m a soccer coach. Nine of those children are visible minorities. How do their parents feel when it’s implied that their kids' soccer coach hangs around white supremacists?”
Nuttall points to his son’s best friend as an example. His friend’s family came to Canada as refugees from Ethiopia. As soon as they got to Canada, Nuttall says they started raising money to help people in Syria.
“That’s the hope and opportunity that I see that we should be talking about,” said Nuttall. “Instead we’re talking about this political bullshit that somebody wants to write on Facebook or Twitter that actually does nothing for anybody and is all about politics, and is not about individuals who need actual help.”
Nuttall and Brassard both chose to drop their lawsuits against Aylwin back in June.
“Once council dealt with the subject ... this guy is not going to say sorry. Council clearly determined it was over the line. The integrity commissioner was very clear. Individuals – myself included – need to realize that words have meaning and power. They have consequences,” said Nuttall.
“The consequences of Keenan’s words – I felt very closely. My family felt them very closely. I’m sure the parents of the kids on my soccer team felt them closely. I hope he learned some lessons,” he said.
The future for Nuttall
When Nuttall looks at his political career, there are two items he’s managed to accomplish locally that stand out to him as the ones of which he’s most proud.
“You know what’s awesome? The thing I’m most proud of, I get to keep. I’m going to continue with The Barn Burner (formerly Hockey Night in Barrie) for at least the next five years,” he said.
Nuttall also lists PIE Education as one of his biggest accomplishments.
Started in the summer of 2013, the program was created by Nuttall and Craig Russell of PIE Restaurants to provide a hand-up to children with the need for educational supplies.
The initiative has provided more than 7,500 backpacks filled with school supplies to children receiving support from organizations such as Barrie and Simcoe County Government Housing, Canadian Mental Health Association, Children’s Aid as well as First Nation’s Peoples.
“Now it’s expanded beyond that,” he said. “That’s something I’m not going to stop doing. It goes back to the idea of, we’re not looking to just give the kid an ‘A’ and just bump them through the program. We’d rather give them the opportunity to earn an ‘A.’”
“It’s kind of like my political philosophy in action,” he added.
When considering what political advice he’d like to give to new politicians, bridging gaps between political affiliations seems to be at the top of the list.
“Treat people with the same respect that you want to be treated,” he said. “Try to remember that 999 out of 1,000 times, the person on the other side of the debate doesn’t have any malice. They’re not bad people. They just want to improve their community and country the same way you do.
“Focus on the policy differences, don’t focus on the personal differences.”
Looking forward, Nuttall has some feelers out for new opportunities, but hasn’t committed publicly to anything yet.
“We’ll see. There’s lots going on. Getting my weekends for my kids and my wife only would be fantastic. We’ll see what shakes out,” he said. “I’m not totally concerned about what the future holds, as long as I can put food on the table and spend some time with these guys.”
But long-term, perhaps once his kids are grown, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning to the political stage.
“One hundred per cent,” he said. “For me, this isn’t goodbye. I just need some time to invest in my family and myself. Maybe that’s selfish, but that’s the way it is.”
