A full circle moment

Jacob Mantle describes the federal race last spring as a tale of two campaigns.

“It almost felt like there were sort of two elections going on – one for people in their 40s and below, and one for people my parents’ age.”

Mantle, who formerly practiced international trade law at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, won the Ontario riding of York–Durham for the Tories.

He is one of several young MPs who rode Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s push for affordability and the dream of home ownership all the way to Ottawa.

“I’m seeing frustration and anger and dejection from people in my generation who just increasingly feel that dream is out of reach for them today, in a way that it wasn’t for my parents,” Mantle says, adding even experienced young professionals can hardly crack Toronto’s housing market. 

“As a lawyer at a Bay Street firm, I would just barely qualify for … a mortgage for the average home price. That shows you the system is not working as it should.”

Pollster Abacus Data released results on April 5 of two surveys conducted in March, suggesting a generational rift. 

“Gen Z remains in a cost-of-living crisis … (and) have remained more consistently in the pre-Trump reality, of this being a cost-of-living election,” wrote Oksana Kishchuk, director of strategy and insights.

“But other, older generations have moved on and are placing increasing focus on Canada-U.S. relations.” 

Being back on Parliament Hill is an “awe-inspiring” full-circle moment for Mantle. He was a summer intern for Bev Oda, former minister of International Co-operation responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency. 

“It’s pretty amazing sitting in that chamber and having a seat in that House.”

His interest in the law grew in 2010 when, just after finishing a political science degree at Queen’s University, he became the youngest person elected to council in his hometown of Uxbridge, Ont. 

He ran because municipal politics was “full of older folks,” he says. 

“And there was no voice for younger people, younger families, younger singles.”

The experience drove home the need to understand bylaws, rules of procedure and Ontario’s Municipal Act. 

Mantle studied law at Queen’s University and began articling in 2016 in the trade section at Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto.

“I didn’t know at the time, but Bennett Jones had probably the best trade practice in the country,” he says. 

“It just struck me as such an exciting mix of law, policy and economics – all sort of bundled up into one legal practice.”

When the trade section, including three partners, moved to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in 2018, Mantle went with them.

He began focusing on trade disputes, investment, and treaty dispute litigation, as well as cross-border regulations affecting businesses and consumers.

Cases piled up after 2017 when U.S. President Donald Trump’s first tariffs hit.

“As soon as Donald Trump starts being Donald Trump in his first term … we become extremely busy and extremely sought after just because there’s very few people in the country that practice this type of law.”

Mantle moved again in 2023, this time to Osler, along with two senior partners. He most recently worked in the international trade law practice, representing Canadian and international clients in various matters before the Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian International Trade Tribunal, among other work. 

The campaign last spring wasn’t the first time Mantle tried for a federal seat. He ran in 2021, losing to Liberal incumbent Jennifer O’Connell.

On Dec. 8, 2020, he posted on Facebook about his efforts to make amends after an online comment in 2008 unleashed outrage at Queen’s.

“While a student council representative, I made a comment on a friend’s Facebook page – two of my female friends, neither of them Muslim, were dressed in sunglasses and towels and I commented: ‘I like your Taliban picture.’

“What I initially thought to be a harmless joke was in fact a hurtful comment to many fellow Muslim students on campus.”

Mantle added: “My own Christian faith is clear that all of us have inherent dignity and worth, and are entitled to love and respect.” 

He apologized in 2008 but did not heed calls to resign as president of the Arts & Science Undergraduate Society.

As part of Mantle’s post on Dec. 8, 2020, lawyer Mustafa Farooq, then CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, called the Taliban comment “abhorrent” but accepted Mantle’s apology.

“Mr. Mantle assured me of his commitment not only to defending religious freedom – but of an aspiration and a promise to actively challenge Islamophobia as a candidate seeking office, and if he were to become an elected official, to use that platform to continue to challenge Islamophobia and religious discrimination in all its forms.”

One of Mantle's first meetings in his new parliamentary office was with the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

Learning from a painful mistake has given him insight, he says.

“Maybe that’s a good thing that came out of that. It gave me an openness to these issues.”