[5] He studied chemical engineering at the University of Toronto part-time before taking time off to focus on his skating.

He made his senior international debut in the 2001–2002 season, making his mark immediately by winning the silver medal at the 2001 NHK Trophy behind Takeshi Honda.

[3][14][15] Buttle's bronze medal finish at Nationals was not enough for him to be qualified as an alternate to the Canadian 2002 Olympic figure skating team.

[3][18] The next season, Buttle repeated his podium finish at Nationals, but was unable to defend his title at Four Continents.

[21][22][15] Buttle spent that summer training in Lake Arrowhead with Rafael Arutyunyan,[23] who would remain as his secondary coach with Lee Barkell.

[28][15] He went on to win his second National title at the 2006 Canadian Championships and went into the Olympics as the reigning World silver medalist.

He was the leader after the short program, and became the first male under the Code of Points system to gain level fours on all spins and footwork.

A free skate in which he only did a double Axel jump without combination and a single on the second attempt left him with the silver medal, behind American Evan Lysacek.

[39] At the 2008 Canadian Championships, despite taking the lead after the short program,[40] he ended up losing his title to a rising star Patrick Chan.

[41] At the 2008 Four Continents, after a third-place finish in the short program, Buttle went on to place second in the long and consequently won the silver medal.

[44] He then went on to deliver a personal best performance to win the gold medal by a 13.95 point margin over the defending world champion, France's Brian Joubert.

[1][45][46] Following his win at Worlds, Buttle appeared as a guest on many TV shows including CBC's Air Farce Live.

[60][61][62] The induction ceremony was held during the 2016 Canadian Figure Skating Championships,[63][64] where he performed a gala program, "Both Sides, Now".

[65] Buttle has toured with Canadian Stars on Ice since his eligible days, and continues to skate in shows as a professional skater.

He appeared in the 2009 US "Smuckers Stars on Ice" tour[66][67] and has skated in several shows in China, Japan, Korea, and Europe.

[76][8][77] In addition to his skating, Buttle works as a choreographer, another career path he started pursuing seriously after his retirement from amateur competition.

[9][70][71][142][143][144][145] He worked as part of the choreography team on the Canadian TV competition show Battle of the Blades,[9] and was one of the choreographers for Intimissimi on Ice – OPERAPOP 2014.