Conservative candidate Tyler Nesbitt is living close to nature here and doing it ethically, and respectfully while teaching his children to do the same.
He wanted them to grow up in the northwest to have the opportunity for them to appreciate nature and enjoy the outdoors as he did as a child.
“This is where it’s at,” he said.
“It’s a huge part of our existence as humans to be in nature and in this area, nature’s splendour is really important,” he said.
People around the world would do anything to have our nature and scenery, he said.
Born and raised in Prince Rupert, Nesbitt went to university in Vancouver, getting a bachelor degree in anthropology at UBC.
Anthropology interested him because on the archaeology side of it, one of the branches is studying and understanding our past, which helps us do better in the future.
It also appealed to his passion for history, culture and mankind.
He jumped at the chance to move back to the northwest when a job came up at a safety supply company that manufactured gloves and fire retardant clothing in Kitimat.
He now lives in Terrace and works with area road and bridge maintenance company Nechako Northcoast Construction as its operations/quality coordinator and road superintendent for the Nass Valley.
And does anthropology relate to his job?
“It’s nothing like my job,” Nesbitt said, adding the only part that could be similar is digging in the dirt occasionally.
If he took any more education, it would likely be an MBA which he could use in his career.
Nesbitt and his wife Bernadette were married in 2007 at Terraceview Lodge, a location chosen because her father lived there. Stricken with pancreatic cancer, he wasn’t expected to live long.
They scrapped plans for a big wedding, organized a small ceremony and rushed up there to hold it. Her father died not long afterward.
Bernadette is a stay at home mom and works part-time as she can to help out with finances but it’ll be two more years anyway before their youngest child is in school and she can work more.
Their three children are Sophie 10, Bray 7, and Remy, 3.
Nesbitt loves fishing, hunting and kayaking, all of which are on hold right now while he campaigns.
His three children love to be out with him while he’s fishing even if it’s just to run around.
“If I didn’t work, I’d probably do it all the time,” said Nesbitt about fishing.
He hunts but solely for meat, usually moose and deer, and adds it’s critical that it be done responsibly.
Fresh meat tastes better than what’s bought in stores, he said.
Nesbitt took French immersion from kindergarten to Grade 12 in Prince Rupert and the family’s school-aged children are enrolled in French immersion in Terrace.
“It’s a huge benefit, not just for a career but it’s a good thing to have a second language,” he says, adding he has a French heritage and his wife is of French descent but doesn’t speak the language.
He doesn’t want to lose his knowledge of French so he will sometimes watch the news in French.
“I think I’ve tried the best I can to preserve that,” he said.
And that’s not the only ethnicity in his family.
His wife has three sisters who are status First Nations and Metis is included too in the family tree.
“I was never taught to [judge on] ethnicity or class lines and I’ve passed that onto my kids to not judge based on those things,” he said.
When he thinks of family, it doesn’t just include his relatives.
“I extend it out to my closest friends,” Nesbitt said.
“I don’t have any bad personal feelings toward anyone else in this race,” he added.
He wants to be able to look back and be content with how his campaign went and not have anything that he wishes he could delete or have to apologize for being disrespectful.
“I want to say of this race that I’m proud of a good example demonstrated and that I can be proud of a respectful campaign,” Nesbitt said.
When it comes to northwestern resource development and the ongoing Wet’suwet’en Unist’ot’en blockade preventing pipeline companies from going through traditional territory near Houston, Nesbitt hopes it can be resolved soon.
“All I can say is I just hope for a peaceful resolution,” said Nesbitt.
People from elsewhere have now joined the Unist’ot’en and Nesbitt’s concern is that these outsiders will exert a negative influence as events develop on the ground.
