MaxSys CEO Bryan Brulotte considers run for mayor of Ottawa
Mark Sutcliffe
Publishing date: Dec 21, 2021 • 3 hours ago • 3 minute read
Just over a year ago, only a few days after the sudden death of his father, Bryan Brulotte was diagnosed with kidney cancer. In February of this year, he underwent successful surgery and says he’s now cured.
But the operation left a permanent scar and the series of events an indelible impact. For Brulotte, the founder and CEO of MaxSys Staffing and Consulting, it was an urgent reminder that he needed to rededicate himself to his priorities, including his family and his community.
“It made me appreciate my life, my family, and much more,” says Brulotte. “It made me realize life is short. It reminded me to be kinder and more considerate to everyone around me, to talk less and listen more.”
And it brought back his ambition to have a more direct impact on the community. Brulotte says he is planning to run for mayor of Ottawa in 2022.
“If you’re going to serve, do it,” he says.
Brulotte has been around politics for most of his adult life. But his main focus has been building the company he founded. After a few years in the Canadian military, Brulotte worked briefly for a cabinet minister on Parliament Hill. When the Progressive Conservatives were swept from power in 1993, he was left without a job.
“No one would hire me,” he says. “My skillset was pretty limited. MaxSys was built out of desperation.”
Brulotte launched the business as a one-person operation in his basement in Orléans. He has since transformed MaxSys into the largest Canadian-owned staffing company in the country, with 100 internal employees and 3,000 workers in placements with clients.
“That’s the dedication and tenacity I’ll apply to being mayor,” he says. In particular, Brulotte says his experience leading the organization through economic ups and downs will serve him well in politics.
“In a small business, you can’t spend frivolously and you’ve got to make every dollar count,” he says. “We’ve been through the dot-com bubble, September 11th, the Great Recession, and most recently COVID. Last year, when the pandemic started, our numbers went through the floor. But in each one of those crises MaxSys was able to survive and then thrive. We knew how to manage our expenses. The city could benefit from that kind of experience in someone as mayor.”
Brulotte ran unsuccessfully as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2000 federal election in Kanata, and briefly considered a run for the federal Conservative leadership two years ago. But he says he will bring a middle-of-the-road approach to municipal politics.
“I will be a pragmatist centrist who wants to listen and build consensus to get stuff done,” he says. “One of the roles of the mayor is to listen, another is to build consensus, and establish coalitions to make sure important issues and ideas are put forward and adopted.”
There are frequent calls for leaders from the private sector to enter politics and bring a more business-like approach to city hall. But switching from CEO to elected official is not as easy as it sounds.
“It’s a different game,” says Brulotte. “In business, the CEO has a lot more control over the final decision. You can’t go into city hall and say it’s my way or the highway. You have to listen and build consensus. That’s half the job.”
Before even getting to city hall, any outsider entering the race has to overcome a lack of widespread awareness in the community. The only declared candidates so far have each built considerable profile through a career in municipal politics.
“It’s going to be one phone call, one coffee, one lunch at a time,” says Brulotte. “We’re going to listen and we’re going to build a team. And we’ll make a final decision about an announcement in the spring.”
He can’t officially enter the race until May. But Bryan Brulotte is talking very much like a candidate who has already decided he will run.
Mark Sutcliffe is a longtime Ottawa entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster, and podcaster. He hosts the Digging Deep podcast, the Mark Sutcliffe show on CityNews , is a business coach and adviser, and is a chair with TEC Canada . His column will return Jan 18.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/column...ulotte-considers-run-for-mayor-of-ottawa
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