When local tattoo artist and district councillor Claire Rattée first arrived in Kitimat as a 19-year-old in 2011 she didn’t like the town.
“A lot of things I hated when I got here are now the things I have gotten to like,” said Claire. “Kitimat has taught me that it is important in life to make the best of the situation that you find yourself in.”
She said one of the things she has grown to love is bumping into people she knows wherever she goes in town, which she says can sometimes extend a quick trip down to the store to buy milk into an hour-long conversation with customers, concerned community members or friends.
“I like going out and seeing people I know. People are very friendly here,” she said, adding that she had never experienced this growing up down south in Ladner B.C., where she was raised in a loving home, her mother and father an accountant and a stockbroker respectively.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Claire, despite the environment she grew up in, was a high school dropout and addicted to drugs at one point in her life.
“I got straight A’s in school until I dropped out in Grade 12. My addition became really bad in 2009, and I was even homeless for a while from 2010 to 2011,” said Claire.
Realizing she needed to sort her life out, Claire decided to kick her habit and find work that would allow her to use her artistic abilities.
She was trained as a hair dresser, but nobody would hire a recovering addict who was homeless, until she walked into a tattoo parlour in Surrey and was offered an apprenticeship, and a roof over her head.
That is also where she met her partner, fellow tattoo artist and business partner, Oliver Brown, who later admitted to her that he had thought she was 16 when he first saw her.
“Oliver realized I could draw and took me on as his apprentice in the summer of 2011. When he later decided to move up to Kitimat, I came with,” said Claire.
She said when she first arrived in Kitimat she didn’t fit in and it took a while for people to get to know her.
“Kitimat can be a very cliquey place when you first get here,” said Claire. “Getting my first job in town really helped.”
What also changed her life dramatically was getting her first pet in Kitimat, her dog Brooklyn.
“I went off all my medication I was taking when I got Brooklyn,” said Claire. “It made a huge difference, being able to walk with him off the leash, which you wouldn’t be able to do in the city.”
Brooklyn was the first of the seven pets which Claire now has, two dogs, two cats, two rabbits and a snake!
Intent on paying it forward, to help other youngsters who were going through similar struggles in Kitimat, Claire decided the best way to do that was to join the District council.
“I’ve always wanted to be involved in politics. Civics was my favourite course at school and my father was involved in politics as well,” said Claire. “The thing is I didn’t give my nomination much thought. I honestly didn’t think I was going to win.”
She said even Oliver, who she says has a health disrespect for politics, got involved by running out and putting up election posters.
However, something in her campaign struck a chord with Kitimat residents, who voted her onto council.
This is the second year of her four-year term, and while Claire said she knows her work on council has been well received, she won’t be running for council again.
“I was trying to open a doorway for younger people, and I would like to see them getting more involved in politics,” said Claire. “There should be more reasons that young people want to get involved in politics other than pot.”
Claire said that if she does run for a position again, it will be provincially or nationally.