Jason Stephen (Photos by Mike Capson)
By Susan Doran
Jason Stephen, president of the Saint John Real Estate Board (SJREB), has a passion for politics and “can chat about every politician like a kid who knows all the hockey players,” says the board’s executive officer, Angela Boudreau.
It’s no surprise to anyone who knows him that Stephen, a native of Saint John and a committed political junkie, was recently elected president of New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative party. He was nominated by Transportation Minister Claude Williams and after two months on the campaign trail, beat out the only other candidate for the job – a Fredericton orthodontist – by a landslide during the PC party’s annual general meeting in early October.
Up until that point Stephen was regional director of the New Brunswick Real Estate Association (NBREA) and chair of the association’s government policy committee. But he says he resigned from those positions as they could present a conflict of interest in light of his new standing in the PC party.
He will stay on as president of the local real estate board though, as in that capacity there is no conflict, he says. “As president of the local board we lobby federal MPs,” he says. The two big issues currently are, 1) pushing to increase the allowable limit home buyers can take from their RRSPs for down payments; and 2) time issues around capital gains rollover, Stephen says.
He says that he believes the Saint John board gets “great value” out of CREA because the national organization’s large size offers advantages that would otherwise be unavailable to a small board.
Stephen has taken on the PC party presidency at a time when the Conservatives are the governing party in New Brunswick. A main focus of his job as president will be to ensure the party is ready for the next provincial election in 2014.
He told the close to 800 voting delegates at the Tory party’s general meeting that he has a keen interest in increasing party membership, and that the key will be attracting more young people.
“More youth need to be engaged in the political process and I want them to be members of the party under the leadership of David Alward and show them that we can build a better province,” Stephen says.
The 35-year-old apparently practises what he preaches; he’s been involved with the PC party for 18 years, since he was still a youth himself. The roles he has held include youth president, riding president and regional vice-president. In the last federal election, he served as campaign manager for Saint John MP Rodney Weston.
His knowledge of politics earned him a position as a radio political commentator during coverage of the 2010 provincial election. (“I’m very gregarious. I can think on my feet,” he says.)
Stephen has been interested in politics for as long as he can recall. It was part of his upbringing. His father, a lawyer, was also an active PC party member, he says.
After graduating from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) with a degree in history and political science, Stephen spent a couple of years in Ottawa “absorbing the political process.” While working on Parliament Hill he served as assistant to former Prime Minister Joe Clark.
“It was a unique opportunity…I really respect Joe,” Stephen says.
But he was homesick for New Brunswick and eventually decided he wanted to return and join the business world. In the fall of 1999, his career in real estate in Saint John began. He’s now with Royal LePage Atlantic, and has won an Award of Excellence from the company for production for the past five years.
Asked if he thinks some potential clients might steer away from him due to differing political affiliations, he says, “Not that anyone has ever told me.” The truth is, he says, having his name out there across the province is good for “branding” and business.
“I’ve never let my political leanings affect my business,” he says. “I know my party is not the only one in the world…I’m not on Facebook saying vote Conservative…I have a mutual respect for all political sides. I never close a door on people. When I won the PC presidency I had as many people on the Liberal side congratulating me as Conservatives. We’re going to the same place; just using a different road map to get there…I’ve got friends on all sides of the political spectrum. ”
His attitude towards business is, “People first, money second,” he says. “If you take care of the first, the second will follow.”
For the past five years he’s taken a team approach to selling, which no doubt has helped with time management.
“I’ve done a decent job of not allowing my PC party presidency to consume time away from my work,” he says. “Real estate is how I make my living and I need to be aware.”
The same holds true for other parts of his life. As his website notes, he’s also a husband, father (of two), a golfer, a coach (girls’ basketball) and a volunteer (this year he won an Alumni Award of Honour from UNB for volunteer work there).
His tips for new or struggling Realtors?
“Keep current,” he says. “Knowledge and advice are what people are now gravitating to agents for. I go to a lot of seminars and training… The knowledge and advice piece will always be ours, like with a financial advisor. ‘Is this a good buy?’ type of questions – I don’t think will ever be something consumers look to the Internet for.”
People want answers much faster now, he says.
“We used to give buyers a real estate catalogue that was two weeks old. And if they called on your pager, you didn’t need to call back for a day or two.” Those days are long gone and today there’s a sharper competitive edge, he says.
Stephen says his political career has been a huge advantage.
“There’s a lot of commonality between real estate and politics,” he says. “I’ve had training on how to build a political ‘brand.’ For real estate, I just turn that training to myself.”
