From musician to politician: rocker David Myles begins his life as an MP

Globe and Mail

24-05-2025

David Myles was standing onstage at a downtown Fredericton hotel in front of a roomful of cheering supporters, halfway through his victory speech, when it dawned on him – really, really dawned on him – what had just happened. That an election had just taken place, that he had won his race and that he was now a member of Parliament.
'This is a shift in my life,' he recalled thinking to himself. 'This is a distinct moment. There's going to be a pre-MP life, and an MP life.'
For any first-time MP, the transition to political life comes with challenges. But for the 44-year-old Mr. Myles – a political neophyte who will be among those first-timers at the House of Commons on Monday when it resumes – his learning curve will be, if not steeper, certainly different than for most.
Until he was sworn in earlier this month as the new MP for Fredericton-Oromocto, Mr. Myles had never served in office. He'd never even volunteered on a campaign or attended an election night party. He wasn't even a member of the Liberal Party until earlier this spring, when he decided to run.
Yet, Mr. Myles's pre-MP life has equipped him with a wealth of experience from an unusual place: The world of music. For the past two decades, the Fredericton-born-and-raised singer-songwriter has toured the country with his guitar, grooving on stages in his signature jaunty suits and bolo ties.
His biggest hit, the 2013 earworm Inner Ninja with rapper Classified, went six-times platinum, earning Mr. Myles (along with Classified) his first Juno.
'People like musicians. People don't like politicians,' he said in an interview last month, while still campaigning. 'To willfully move into a world where people are going to dislike you – it's going to be a challenge.'
It was only the month before, in March, when Mr. Myles made the decision to put music aside for politics. The actions of U.S. President Donald Trump, and the heated, divisive rhetoric of politicians on both sides of the border made him feel like this was an important moment to get involved.
'I don't want my country to go in that direction.'
In his 20s, Mr. Myles studied political science and worked in the offices of two MPPs at Queen's Park. But it's his decades as a musician, touring Canada in a minivan that make him uniquely qualified.
'I feel like I have a really good sense of the country – a really good sense of rural and urban Canada,' he said. 'And I have the perspective to start bridging some gaps.' The leap is not entirely unheard of: Both Charlie Angus and Andrew Cash were former musicians-turned NDP MPs.
Still, he faced questions on the campaign trail about his lack of political experience.
By the weekend before the election, it was clear that the then 43-year-old was still figuring things out. Before knocking on doors, Mr. Myles – who's built like Where's Waldo, glasses and all – was still turning to his campaign manager, Kate McAllister (chief of staff to the previous MP in the riding, Jenica Atwin), to run him through his talking points. And it took him a few weeks of campaigning before realizing that his blue plaid flannel was confusing voters – that he should switch to Liberal red.
But, when talking to voters, he was clearly in his element. He knew – owing to his family's deep roots in the city, and his years of experience fundraising for the local food bank – many of his supporters by name. And he seemed to genuinely enjoy himself.
He sang and hummed as he walked. Spoke to supporters and strangers alike with the same awed, genuine delight. Spoke with one elderly couple, at length – and without a trace of irony – about how terrifically they'd organized their garage. 'Garage mahal,' he said, still marvelling at it minutes later.
And now that he's been elected, it's this gee-shucks quality that some worry about. While on the campaign trail, several of his friends and supporters described Mr. Myles as a boy scout. Several also referenced Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the classic film about a naive first-time U.S. senator in a corrupt government.
One woman, Gale MacDonald, came out of her house to chat with him for several minutes. They'd never met before, but her daughters had gone to school with Mr. Myles. As she spoke, she reached out and placed her fingertips on his forehead.
'I thought, 'Why would that sweet boy put himself up for this?' ' she said. 'I can't help but say, 'Be careful. Guard your soul.' '
She worried, she said, that Ottawa might change him.
Mr. Myles has spent a lot of time contemplating the same.
'If you're acting like someone else in a job, it just becomes an unbearable burden,' he said. It's a lesson he learned from music after Inner Ninja became a hit, and he wondered about how to navigate the music world next to his hip-hop collaborators.
'I had to figure out if I was going to try to fit into the hip-hop world, or if I was going to be the nerd with the suit,' he said. He chose the latter 'because I couldn't fake it.'
He's confident he'll find a similar balance in Ottawa.
'I wouldn't have made this decision if I didn't want to be great at it,' he said. 'I want to be great in Ottawa. I want to be great at this job.'