John Nater (born February 14, 1984) is a
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
politician. He is currently serving as the
Member of Parliament for the
riding of
Perth Wellington in the
House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
.
Education and early life
Nater was born in Logan Township (now part of the Township of
West Perth), and raised on a family pig farm. While attending
Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...
, he worked as a volunteer intern for MP
Gary Schellenberger
Gary Ralph Schellenberger (born September 15, 1943) is a Canadian politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2003 to 2015, and represented the riding of Perth Wellington for the Conservative Party. Schellenberger won ...
, and later became his special assistant.
He later became an executive assistant to MPP
Randy Pettapiece
Randy Pettapiece (born ) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represented the riding of Perth—Wellington as MPP from 2011 until he stood down at the 2022 elec ...
.
He also worked as a grievance analyst with the
Correctional Service of Canada
The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC; ), also known as Correctional Service Canada or Corrections Canada, is the Government of Canada, Canadian federal government agency responsible for the incarceration and Rehabilitation (penology), rehabili ...
and policy analyst at the
Treasury Board of Canada
The Treasury Board of Canada () is the Cabinet committee of the Privy Council of Canada which oversees the spending and operation of the Government of Canada and is the principal employer of the core public service. The committee is supported ...
.
Nater earned degrees as a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management from Carleton in 2007, as well as a
Master of Public Administration
A Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a specialized professional graduate degree in public administration that prepares students for leadership roles, similar or equivalent to a Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the ...
from
Queen's University in 2008.
From 2012 to 2014, he was a lecturer at
King's University College. When nominated to run for MP in November 2014, he had been a PhD candidate at
Western University in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
.
Municipal politics
In the
2010 Ontario municipal election, Nater was elected to the
West Perth council as a representative for the
Mitchell Ward. During his time on municipal council Nater served as chair of the Environmental Services Committee. In 2014 the committee began a project to build a new water tower in Mitchell.
He did not run for re-election in the subsequent municipal election, as he planned to seek the Conservative nomination for Perth—Wellington, vacated due to the impending retirement of long-serving MP Gary Schellenberger.
Federal politics
2015 election
Nater won the nomination,
and was elected in the
2015 Canadian federal election
The 2015 Canadian federal election was held on October 19, 2015, to elect the 338 members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the 42nd Canadian Parliament, 42nd Parliament of Canada. In accordance with the Fixed election date ...
with 22,255 votes (42.9%).
42nd Canadian Parliament
From February 17, 2016, to September 18, 2017, Nater served as Vice Chair of the
Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages. During this time he was critical of the Liberal Government's decision to nominate
Madeleine Meilleur
Madeleine Meilleur (born November 22, 1948) is a Canadian nurse, lawyer and former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2016. She represented the riding of Ottawa—Vanier ...
as
Official Languages Commissioner
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
. Nater frequently called the nomination partisan and questioned the Liberal Government's appointments process.
During the
42nd Canadian Parliament
The 42nd Canadian Parliament was in session from December 3, 2015, to September 11, 2019, with the membership of its lower chamber, the House of Commons of Canada, having been determined by the results of the 2015 federal election held on Octob ...
, Nater earned a reputation as an expert on
parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedures are the accepted Procedural law, rules, ethics, and Norm (sociology), customs governing meetings of an deliberative assembly, assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of inte ...
.
On March 23, 2017, Nater made an intervention in the House of Commons on the Question of Privilege raised a day earlier by his Conservative colleague
Lisa Raitt
Lisa Sarah MacCormack Raitt (born May 7, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as a federal Cabinet minister and member of Parliament (MP) from 2008 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, Raitt was elected to the House of Com ...
. Nater argued there was sufficient grounds for a
prima facie
''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning "at first sight", or "based on first impression". The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance", from the feminine forms of ' ("first") and ' ("face"), both in the a ...
question of privilege. On April 6,
Speaker
Speaker most commonly refers to:
* Speaker, a person who produces speech
* Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound
** Computer speakers
Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* "Speaker" (song), by David ...
Geoff Regan
Geoffrey Paul Regan (born November 22, 1959) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 36th speaker of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Liberal Party, he was the member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax West 20 ...
ruled there was. However, during debate on the motion following the ruling the Liberal MP
Alexandra Mendès
Alexandra Mendès (born November 3, 1963) is a Canadian Liberal politician, currently serving as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Brossard—Saint-Lambert since 2015. She previously served in the House of Commons from 2008 until 2011 ...
moved a motion to proceed to orders of the day, ending the debate and with it the opportunity to address a violation of Members' rights.
On April 7, 2017, Nater made another intervention asking the Speaker to revive the previous motion. Citing extensively from previous speakers rulings and the rules of parliamentary procedure Nater argued that the Government's motion to move to orders of the day during a debate on a motion of privilege "is an extremely dangerous precedent that denies members their fundamental right to vote"
On April 11, 2017, Regan ruled in favour of Nater and invited him to once again move a motion to refer the issue to the
.
On August 30, 2017,
Official Opposition
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
leader
Andrew Scheer
Andrew James Scheer (born May 20, 1979) is a Canadian politician who is the Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), leader of the Opposition since 2025 and previously from 2017 to 2020 as Leader of the Conservative Party (Canada), leader of ...
named Nater to be Shadow Minister for Interprovincial Trade and the
Sharing Economy
The sharing economy is a socio-economic system whereby consumers share in the creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods, and services. These systems take a variety of forms, often leveraging information technology and the ...
.
On September 19, 2017, Nater became a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
On January 28, 2019, Nater introduced a bill to amend the
Criminal Code of Canada
The ''Criminal Code'' () is a law of the Parliament of Canada that codifies most, but not all, criminal offences and criminal procedure in Canada. Its official long title is ''An Act respecting the Criminal Law'' (French: ). It is indexed in t ...
. Inspired by a criminal incident in Stratford, the intention of the bill was to better protect young people and people with disabilities from sexual exploitation.
2019 election
In the
2019 Canadian federal election
The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Members of the House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the maximum four-year term under a 2007 amendment to the ''Canada Elections Act'', ...
Nater was re-elected with 25,622 votes, finishing more than 10,000 votes ahead of the second-placed Liberal candidate.
43rd Canadian Parliament
From November 28, 2019, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer appointed Nater the Official Opposition Deputy House Leader to work under
Opposition House Leader
The Opposition House Leader (), officially known as leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons of Canada, is a member of the Official Opposition, not to be confused with the Leader of the Official Opposition, but is generally a ...
Candice Bergen (politician)
Candice Marie Bergen Harris (born September 28, 1964) is a Canadian politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Portage—Lisgar in Manitoba from 2008 to 2023. She served as the interim leader of the Conservative Party and the ...
. Nater held the position until September 2, 2020 when new leader
Erin O'Toole
Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian lawyer, former military officer and politician who was the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition from 2020 to 2022. O'Toole was elected ...
replaced him with
Karen Vecchio
Karen Louise Vecchio (née Martyn; born March 6, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Elgin—Middlesex—London from 2015 to 2025.
Biography
She was raised in Sparta, Ontario. Prior ...
.
On September 8, 2020, O'Toole named Nater to be Shadow Minister for Rural Economic Development. During this time Nater was actively critical of the Liberal record on rural internet service.
2021 election
Nater won his second re-election campaign in the
2021 Canadian federal election
The 2021 Canadian federal election was held on September 20, 2021, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons to the 44th Canadian Parliament. The Writ of election, writs of election were issued by Governor General of ...
, again increasing his share of the vote.
44th Canadian Parliament
On November 9, 2021, Nater was named Shadow Minister for Canadian Heritage. During this time Nater was critical of the Liberal Government's ''
Online Streaming Act''. Nater was also involved in the Heritage Committee work on the
Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal
Junior ice hockey players have been the subject of sexual assault investigations by police fifteen times since 1989. In 2022, Police were investigating three sexual assault allegations that happened in 2003 and the 2018 Hockey Canada controversy ...
.
During the
2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election
In 2022, the Conservative Party of Canada held a leadership election to elect the successor to Erin O'Toole. He was removed on February 2, 2022, as leader by the party's caucus in the House of Commons of Canada by a vote of 73–45.
Five can ...
, Nater endorsed
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding se ...
, former
premier of Quebec
The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following tha ...
and cabinet minister during the premierships of
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...
and
Kim Campbell
Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician who was the 19th prime minister of Canada from June to November 1993. Campbell is the first and only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the f ...
, and was among four Conservative MPs to sign an open letter asking Charest to run. In the contest Charest came second to
Pierre Poilievre
Pierre Marcel Poilievre (born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has been the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Conservative Party since 2022. He was the Member of Parliament (Canad ...
. On October 12, 2022, when Poilievre named his new
shadow cabinet, Nater was not included.
In October 2022, Nater returned to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and was elected Vice Chair. He was involved in the committee hearings on
Chinese government interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections and the
2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution
A redistribution of federal electoral districts ("ridings") began in Canada following the results of the 2021 Canadian census. The Constitution of Canada requires that federal electoral districts that compose the House of Commons undergo a re ...
.
In September 2023 Nater moved to
Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP) is a standing committee of the House of Commons of Canada. It reviews the Auditor General's reports. It is one of four standing committees of the House that is chaired by a member of ...
. During this time he focused on reviewing reports of the
Auditor General of Canada
The Auditor General of Canada (French: La vérificatrice générale du Canada) is a Supreme audit institution which acts as an officer to the Parliament of Canada tasked with highlighting accountability and oversight by conducting independent f ...
including the critical
ArriveCAN
ArriveCAN is a mobile app provided by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Introduced in April 2020, it allows travellers entering Canada to electronically submit travel documents and customs declarations.
The app was initially developed ...
report.
From March 2022 to May 2023, Nater worked with Ontario Senator
Robert Black to pass Bill S-227, the ''Food Day Canada Act'', in honour of Wellington County food activist
Anita Stewart
Anita Stewart (born Anna Marie Stewart; February 7, 1895 – May 4, 1961) was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era.
Early years
Anita Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Anna Marie Stewart on February 7, ...
Electoral record
Further reading
Academic
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References
External links
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*
* , drawing from
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nater, John
1984 births
Living people
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Ontario municipal councillors
University of Western Ontario alumni
Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario
Queen's University at Kingston alumni
21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada