Incoming Liberal MPP Tyler Watt credits his nursing experience and advocacy for connecting with voters in Nepean in the provincial election.
It was a moment he had spent years preparing for, but just months before Ontario’s snap election call, Tyler Watt was having second thoughts.
The 34-year-old registered nurse and community advocate had been working full-time at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and helping his family care for his terminally ill father.
“That became my whole life, on top of running for the nomination.”
As anticipation grew about an early election call, Watt began to wonder whether it was the right time to make a second attempt to seek election in the long-time Progressive Conservative riding of Nepean.
It was his father who convinced him.
“You have to do this,” he told Watt. He encouraged Watt to use his own experience to help others trying to navigate the health system, including home care. “He knew how much I cared about this and how much I care about this community.”
Watt’s father died in December. Less than two months later, Watt won a sweeping victory, almost 5,000 votes ahead of Progressive Conservative candidate Alex Lewis, flipping the riding after decades of PC leadership.
Premier Doug Ford, who won a majority, had framed the campaign around the threat of tariffs, but Watt said health care is what most people wanted to talk about. “Hands down, health care was the No. 1 issue. Everyone has a health care story and experience.”
As he prepared to head to Queen’s Park for an orientation, the win was beginning to sink in.
“I am still over the moon. This is definitely one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It is starting to feel real now,” said Watt.
Evening Update
Watt, who grew up in Barrhaven, followed his mother’s footsteps into nursing. He didn’t plan on running for office. But even as a student nurse at St. Lawrence College he felt compelled to speak out about issues that affected him and others, starting with cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program. His growing social media presence and activism got noticed.
Early on, he was contacted by someone from the Ontario Liberal Party who said: “What you are doing is resonating with people.”
After that contact, Watt spent one summer working as a legislative assistant to Liberal MPP Mitzi Hunter which gave him a new perspective.
“That is where I think I got the idea that maybe this is for me.”
Watt began working full-time as a nurse at the very beginning of the pandemic. He continued to build a social media following, bringing a “nurse’s lens” to the health emergency and advocating for better policies: “Just me, speaking my mind.” Among other things, Watt helped “sound the alarm” over growing levels of burnout and frustration among nurses and other health workers. Still, Watt said he had to “walk a fine line” as a health worker to avoid speaking about his own work. “I have never spoken about my job or my patients and always kept it very general.”
His growing public presence helped earn him the nomination as the Liberal candidate in the 2022 provincial election, running against veteran incumbent Lisa MacLeod, who was first elected in 2006. He lost that race to MacLeod by just about 2,000 votes, increasing the Liberal share of the vote in the riding by more than 14 per cent.
The closeness of that vote solidified Watt’s resolve to run again. Before this year’s election call, MacLeod announced she would not run again.
Watt credits his nursing training and work experience to help him connect with people, including while knocking on doors, some days up to 300 of them.
“For me, as a nurse, that in-person interaction is everything. There were some doors where I was there for 10 or 20 minutes and there were a lot of meaningful, touching experiences. I’ve cried with people at the door. People have given me a hug afterward. These are all stories I will remember for the rest of my life.”
And while Watt’s win helped the provincial Liberals regain official party status, the NDP remainsthe official opposition in Ontario and the PCs hold a firm majority.
Still, Watt believes he can make a difference by bringing his constituents’ concerns and his own experience as an RN to Queen’s Park.
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