20 questions

1 . What is your full name?

My full name is Thomas Andrew Davis.

2 . Where were you born and where do you live today?

I was born in St. John’s Newfoundland at the old Grace Hospital and I live in St. John’s.

3 . What is one thing you would like people to know about you?

I play pickleball three or four times a week. It’s actually a really well-designed sport because you can play games at all ages.

4 . What would people be surprised learn about you?

I went back to university fulltime in 2020 and completed a second degree in economics because I wanted to better understand fiscal and economic realities. It was really hard, the last time I was in school was when I finished my commerce degree in 1994. I had to do math, I had a tutor. I learned a lot.

5 . What was the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

Speaking out about the mess we’re all making of our bodies and communities and province and the future of the planet. That’s the most difficult.

6 . Can you describe one experience that changed your life?

Working with my wife on child abuse prevention. In particular, the Kids in the Know Body Safety Program, we spent five years lobbying the government in different levels to get that implemented in schools.

It was life changing because I would sit in these boardrooms knowing that children were going home to homes where they’re being abused, in real-time.

I would have bureaucrats and politicians, mostly bureaucrats, sitting across from me and you know what? They didn’t care. They didn’t care enough. I couldn’t reconcile how they didn’t have a greater sense of urgency.

We went three meetings in a row with a deputy minister and at every meeting we’d ask how many schools they’re piloting in and they would say they would check.

Three meetings in a row we asked and this third meeting they said “Well, we’ll look” and I said “You know what, you don’t care. You’re getting paid anyway. People like my wife are going home from school, they’re being abused, and you guys don’t care enough.”

That was a life-changing thing for me. I realized the problem right now is not that there’s corruption. It’s not that the politicians and government are corrupt and businesses are corrupt, some businesses might be, but the problem is that people don’t care enough.

7 . What is your greatest indulgence?

My electric vehicles, in particular my Ford E-transit, although it’s a business vehicle. It was the only new vehicle I’ve ever bought in my life, only because you couldn’t buy used because it was a brandnew model.

8 . What is your favourite book?

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, life changing. He was a psychologist, Jewish psychologist, went into the concentration camps in World War Two. His whole family was killed except for him and he analyzed the people that survived the concentration camps and why.

He realized that those who had purpose, specific purpose about making sacrifices for others, they survived.

The pessimist died, the optimist died, but those who would make small sacrifices or large sacrifices for other people were happier and they had a better chance of surviving.

9 . What is your favourite movie?

“Heat”, which like a lot of movies doesn’t stand up over time. It used to be “Airplane”, I watched it again years later and it was lame. I thought that was a hilarious comedy and then I said to my kids ‘we need to watch it and it was lame.

Heat is the same way. I went back and started watching it again, it was such bold writing when they put especially when they put De Niro and Pacino in the cafe, having a conversation where you got the crook and the crook knows it’s a cop and the cop knows it’s a crook.

10 . What do you like to listen to?

I never listen to music. Never. I always listen to talk radio. I listen to every hour of Open Line and I listen to a lot of CBC, a lot of podcasts. If I were to listen to music, which I’d almost have to force myself to do, it would be upbeat, it would be something that gets me wrapped up in listening.

11 . How do you like to relax?

I don’t do it very well. Definitely spending time with family. My family gets together for a fish fry every Friday night and there’s like 10 to 14 of us. Spending time with families definitely. We play scat afterwards.

12 . What are you reading or watching right now?

I’m rereading my wife’s book. It’s a really inspirational book, but it also gives you so much insight into human nature and, and the blinders that everybody puts on. Social workers, people, doctors, people who knew things weren’t going right.

My wife’s memory is incredible, and the way it’s written, when she’s a child, it’s like a child telling the story. As she becomes an adult, her memory is so clear, but it’s like how a child would process it. It’s not like it’s clinical. You can really feel it, but my wife also is a very private person, so it’s not graphic.

13 . What is your greatest fear?

That our society collapses and my children and future generations in their lives and misery.

I’m deeply concerned about the future, but I don’t really care about me. I don’t buy this whole adage that our children are going to save us. We don’t have time for that. We have to save ourselves.

14 . What is your greatest joy?

Feeling validated by my instincts and my analysis of the situation. I actually feel like whether it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy and the universe I’m attracting to myself, like a combination of calamity and collapse which kind of justifies my way of thinking, but I think more and more people are coming to terms with the fact that you need to take action. So I guess my greatest joy is the belief that more and more people are taking their heads out of the sand a little bit.

They’re quick to put it back in, but I actually have a lot of hope. But collectively, I’m concerned. I guess that’s not a joy.

15 . What is your most treasured possession?

Upon reflection, it’s my wedding photo because everyone in it’s still alive. I know how lucky I am.

My aunt, my parents, my three children, my nieces, my nephews, my brothers, my sisters, their parents, their spouses. That family unit is still together and that represents my most treasured thing. Everything else is just stuff.

16 . What’s the best advice you ever got from a parent or mentor?

Two ears, one mouth, but I struggle with it.

17 . What would you say is your best quality what would you say is your worst quality?

I think my best quality and worst quality might be the same thing. In my case, it’s that I thrive in high-pressure and chaotic situations, and a drive to take action when others are paralyzed. It’s selffulfilling, you look at my life, what do I do? I’m always the center of chaotic situations.

18 . Where’s your favourite place in the world?

I used to be a world traveller, I’ve been to 54 countries. If you were to say a place I’ve probably been there. When that awakening happened with Snowmageddon/ COVID and the climate and humanity, I can’t do it anymore. So now my favourite place in the world is my family’s summer place. I would really struggle to pick a favourite place. I’ve been in some incredibly powerful places.

19 . Who do you follow on social media?

No one specifically, it’s more like throwing a net out and it’s random, right? Although I use social media, for me is mostly an outgoing communication device, which is a negative because even though I’ve just gotten elected, I really haven’t been on Facebook and even thanked anybody.

20 . What three people would join you for your dream dinner party?

I would love to be in the same room as Elon Musk and Bill Gates and have the Obamas there. I think they’d be helpful for collecting my thoughts to have that perspective on those people because none of those people live in the same world that we do.

They see the world totally differently. All four of those people, I have just so much respect for them, maybe more for Michelle than I do for Barack, but I have a lot of respect for both.