Babel news media have been quite aghast at the questionable actions of one of the local Conservative politicians. While Babel media is easy to excite, there is no question that Ward 10 City Councillor Alex Nuttall has overstepped some ethical boundaries as he scrambles on his political journey of life. He would be better advised if he stopped doing what local Member of Parliament Patrick Brown suggests he do and listened to some mature advice.
If you meet Alex Nuttall, you are likely to agree that he is a personable young man. Mind you, the operative word here is ‘young.’ He has much to learn. He is still just a trainee in his job with one of the local banks. His contributions on city council are well meaning but lack sophistication or necessary experience. He has none of the life experience necessary to be a worthwhile member of the legislature at Queen’s Park.
And that is also why he is making critical mistakes. To declare himself a candidate for the provincial Conservative nomination, before even being sworn in as councillor for the 2010 to 2014 term, is an insult to the voters of Ward 10 who have just re-elected him. To so blatantly and openly breach the rules of his political party in respect to membership payments is a kid mistake. If he was not six-foot-five, these would just be blunders that he should be spanked for. They should not be albatrosses he has to carry for the rest of his political career.
What is wrong is to take the advice of, and follow in the path of, MP Patrick Brown. It was common knowledge that Brown would leave his city voters in the lurch when he made his finally successful jump from municipal into federal politics. He rode the 2006 crest of the wave to dump PM Paul Martin’s seemingly corrupt Liberals into an easy federal seat. He was not the best person for the job then and he has not grown into it.
But Brown’s advice could destroy Alex Nuttall’s future political hopes. The Conservative party is not going to block him going after the nomination. The members of the local nomination committee have no powers to block his participation. The provincial officials will stick their tongues in their cheeks and accept his explanation that there were some sequential bills in payment for memberships because of making change for larger bills presented by new members.
While the Conservative Party will buy that fiction, Nuttall’s employer cannot. A bank cannot be party to anything that might be unethical and his employer cannot say ‘boys will be boys’ with the amount of money involved. There was no way it could be confidential in the banking community what he had taken from his account in small denomination bills when it can impact providing change for the branch’s commercial customers. As a trainee, he did not yet know enough about how bank’s function.
Even if Patrick Brown had the decency to take the blame for the fiasco, he has hurt Alex Nuttall’s chances of being elected even if he wins the nomination. And if he does win the nomination, Nuttall could have a difficult time paying his personal bills until next October’s provincial election on the part-time salary of a city councillor.
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