Early Life and City Politics
Cullen was born February 18, 1951 in Montreal to a Dutch mother and an Irish father, who was a sea captain-turned successful businessman in Montreal. Cullen attended Lower Canada College in Montreal before moving to Ottawa to attend Carleton University. At Carleton, he was the President of the Carleton University Student Liberals and served on the Carleton University Students Association as Arts Representative and later as Vice-President of CUSA. However, he didn't finish at Carleton due to poor grades. He worked at Fat Albert's in Ottawa (a sub shop) before heading to Toronto, where he worked as a bank teller and savings supervisor. He then went to York University in Toronto, where he obtained both a Bachelor's degree (Honours) and a Master's degree in economics. He also became a member of Mensa. Cullen later returned to Ottawa to work initially for Informetrica (an economics consulting firm) as an economist, moving on to the federal Department of Health and Welfare as a policy analyst. There he joined the Economists', Statisticians' & Sociologists' Association (ESSA - a federal public service union), where he rose to Vice-President.
In 1982 he was elected school board trustee with the Ottawa Board of Education. In the 1985 provincial election, he ran as a Liberal candidate in the riding of Ottawa West but lost to Ontario Progressive Conservative Party incumbent Reuben Baetz, a cabinet minister, by about 3,000 votes. Easily re-elected as a school board trustee in 1985, Cullen again sought the Liberal nomination to run in the Ottawa West riding in the 1987 election, but lost to local lawyer Bob Chiarelli. During this time Cullen was also active in Kiwanis, serving as President of the Westboro Kiwanis Club in 1985-86.
He ran for Ottawa City Council in 1988 in the Richmond Ward, but lost to incumbent Jacquelin Holzman. When Holzman vacated the seat to successfully run for mayor in the 1991 election, Cullen, then a community association president in the ward (Glabar Park Community Alliance), ran again and won the seat in a close three-way race.
As an Ottawa City Councillor he also served jointly on the Council of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. In 1994 Cullen was elected as the first Regional Councillor for Bay Ward, when provincial legislation created a directly-elected Regional Council. In 1996, Cullen supported Dalton McGuinty to lead the Ontario Liberal Party (Ottawa Citizen, 2 December 1996).
Read more about this topic: Alex Cullen
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, city and/or politics:
“Foolish prater, What dost thou
So early at my window do?
Cruel bird, thou’st ta’en away
A dream out of my arms to-day;
A dream that ne’er must equall’d be
By all that waking eyes may see.
Thou this damage to repair
Nothing half so sweet and fair,
Nothing half so good, canst bring,
Tho’ men say thou bring’st the Spring.”
—Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)
“Each dream finds at last its form; there is a drink for every thirst, and love for every heart. And there is no better way to spend your life than in the unceasing preoccupation of an idea—of an ideal.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“Och, Dublin City, there is no doubtin’,
Bates every city upon the say;
‘Tis there you’ll see O’Connell spoutin’,
An’ Lady Morgan makin’ tay;
For ‘tis the capital of the finest nation,
Wid charmin’ pisintry on a fruitful sod,
Fightin’ like divils for conciliation
An’ hatin’ each other for the love of God.”
—Charles James Lever (1809–1872)
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)