Craig Chandler

Craig B. Chandler (born 1970) was a United Alternative candidate at the 2003 convention to elect the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

Right-wing activism

A Christian conservative, Chandler had been an Ontario and Alberta activist in the Reform Party of Canada and its successor, the Canadian Alliance. He is the President and co-founder of the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB). The PGIB (founded in 1992) is a membership funded right-wing think-tank and lobby group. The PGIB claims to have a membership of roughly 6500. The PGIB carried some influence on the policies of the "Common Sense Revolution" platform that propelled Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Mike Harris to provincial government. The PGIB also carried some influence on the Reform Party when it launched its successful 1995 "Focus Federally for Reform" Campaign (FFR). FFR encouraged the Reform Party not to create provincial Reform Party wings and risk splitting the right-wing provincial vote in provinces. In the 1997 election, the PGIB gained notoriety for running "U.S. style" attack ads against Liberal Party of Canada candidates such as Sheila Copps and Jane Stewart. In 1998, under the auspices of the PGIB, Chandler organized a controversial "Unite the Right – Roots of Change" conference in Toronto, Ontario. The conference attracted negative media attention for not just including social conservative delegates from the Reform and Progressive Conservative Parties but also top officials from the far-right federal Christian Heritage Party of Canada and Confederation of Regions Party and the Freedom Party of Ontario, and rightist lobby groups such as Renaissance Canada and the Association for the Preservation of English in Canada as well as right-wing journalists and media commentators Michael Coren and Linda Leatherdale. [1] In recent years, the PGIB has turned its associations across Canada towards local politics and community activism. Several municipal politicians in Western Canada have been successfully elected with PGIB-managed political campaigns and platforms. The PGIB has come under some criticism for its activities which are seen as too politically aggressive and forceful by some members in the media. The PGIB has also been criticized internally by members who have suggested that the top-down organization has essentially become Chandler's personal lobby machine for his own SoCon agenda and that the PGIB does not do enough to canvass and promote the will and agenda of its general membership. Some have suggested that the uses of the members' dues of the PGIB, which range from $60 (Cdn.) to $350 annually are largely unaccounted for to the general membership. [2] PGIB Offices in Burlington, Ontario and Calgary have also received numerous bomb threats. [3] In an interview, Chandler suggested that many of the threats were probably from childish pranksters but he also alluded that some might be from trade unionists and abortion advocates who support policies that the PGIB is intrinsically opposed to. Chandler has also been accused by members of the Calgary wing of the Canadian Planned Parenthood Federation of making bomb threats on abortion clinics. [4]

Politician

In 1989, Chandler joined the Reform Party of Canada. He served on the Board of Directors of the Burlington Reform Party constituency association for four years. In the 1993 election, at the age of 23, Chandler ran as the "longshot" Reform Party candidate in the riding of Hamilton-Mountain and came in a surprising second place finish with nearly 11, 000 votes. In the 1997 Alberta election, Chandler ran unsuccessfully as a provincial candidate for the Social Credit Party of Alberta, led at that time by future Alberta Alliance party leader Randy Thorsteinson. Chandler finished third in the riding of Calgary-West with 1100 votes or 7.5% of the electorate. Chandler finished ahead of the Alberta New Democrats candidate and was the most popularly supported urban Socred candidate in the 1997 provincial election. [5] In 2000, Chandler supported the creation of the Canadian Alliance and supported Stockwell Day in his bid to become Alliance leader. In 2002, Chandler and the PGIB diverted their resources to Stephen Harper's successful leadership bid. In 2003, Chandler took out a membership in the Progressive Conservative Party in order to run for the PC leadership on a platform of creating a coalition between the PC and Alliance party caucuses. [6] He withdrew prior to voting in order to endorse the only other candidate that was open to tangible cooperation on the right, Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice.

Pre-convention speech

The night before the convention Chandler gained some infamy and condemnation after delivering a platform that the Canadian Press described as homophobic, fundamentalist and neoconservative to the bone. Rick Salutin, covering the event for Maclean's Magazine, described Chandler as "the true black face of neoconservatism. He could live to be 100 and he'll never know the meaning of, I am my brother's keeper." [7] Chandler's statements were called "bitter and resentful" by frontrunner Peter MacKay whom Chandler attacked in his speech for the MP's support of the passage of Criminal Code of Canada amendment Bill C-250 that adds homosexuals to the list of groups protected by hate crimes legislation. Chandler suggested that the amendment would lead to the banning of the Bible and other religious texts in schools and public libraries. Chandler also complimented Tory MP Elsie Wayne on her "honest statements" about homosexuals, suggesting that no one has to apologize for having an opinion, even if it is not politically correct. This section of his twenty minute speech was booed by many delegates.

Chandler also called for a formal union of the PC and CA parties, advocating a electoral coalition between the two parties that would eventually lead to a merger. Chandler proposed that

• Currently elected PC MPs would run uncontested for their nominations and stand as sole right-of-centre candidates in their respective ridings in the next election;
• Liberal Party, New Democratic Party or Bloc Quebecois ridings where the PCs ran closest to first-place in the 2000 election would have a PC candidate running as the sole right-of-centre choice in the next election and vice versa for ridings where CA candidates came closest to first-place.
• After the next election, the elected parliamentary caucuses of both parties would work towards a full-fledged merger.

At the end of his speech Chandler surprised many by being generously complementary of the leadership qualities of Red Tory competitors David Orchard and Scott Brison, before endorsing and pledging support to Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice's leadership bid to the astonishment of many delegates in attendance. [8]

Impact in the race

Ultimately Chandler was a marginal candidate during the race. Some political humorists suggested that their first and only impressions of Chandler were that he was generally uninspiring in the party debates and that his ambition must have been "to be as charismatic as Joe Clark." With the exception of statements in one debate on CPAC where he openly apologized to America for Canada's unwillingness to participate in the War in Iraq, his candidacy was largely ignored by the media until the dying days of the campaign. Like many other marginal candidates before him (see John Stachow), he was not expected to have any impact on the final results.

Some political analysts have suggested that, despite being a marginal candidate, Chandler did manage to have some influence on the final results of the leadership race. [9] While Chandler suggested in his speech that he had as many as 103 secret supporters amongst the "undeclared" delegates attending the function, most analysts suggest that Chandler only had 12 committed delegates from a few Calgary riding associations. Chandler withdrew from the race too late to be removed from the first ballot. He was therefore formally defeated on the first ballot with 0 recorded delegates (his supporters voted in favour of Prentice). On the second ballot however, Red Tory leadership candidate Scott Brison emerged in fourth place, only 3 delegates behind Jim Prentice. Some analysts have suggested that Chandler's dozen delegates helped prevent Prentice from coming in fourth after Brison's supporters received a slight boost in size from defections by some of fellow Nova Scotia Tory MP Peter MacKay's delegates. Many political analysts have wondered, given the historic aftermath of the 2003 PC leadership convention, if the present political situation would have been any different if Brison had survived the second-ballot and could have faced off against David Orchard and Peter MacKay in the third and fourth ballots.

Recent activities

After the Tory leadership race, Chandler quickly receded from the public eye. He resurfaced briefly during the 2004 federal election and the March 2005 new Conservative Party of Canada policy convention in Montreal, both times criticizing Stephen Harper's ambiguous positions on perennial social conservative issues such as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage and civil union rights. Chandler also suggested that he resented Harper's attempts to "shut-up" socially conservative MPs. Chandler recently became CEO of the religious lobby group Concerned Christians Canada Inc., a political lobby organization that rallies support for Evangelical Christian riding candidates, MPs and causes.

Spokesperson for social conservativism

Chandler recently suggested on CBC Newsworld that he will be campaigning for the Conservative Party nomination in the next election in the riding of Calgary North Centre which is currently represented by Conservative MP Jim Prentice because of Prentice's pro-choice stance on abortion and intention to vote in favour of same-sex marriage rights. His announcement was considered "laughable" to many media personalities. A February 6, 2005 article by Calgary Herald columnist Tom Olsen suggests that Chandler is a "political lightweight" in charge of a "band of irregulars." That said, other Calgary political watchers have noted that nomination campaigns are largely based on who can get their vote out and Chandler has shown a knack for directing large and organized right-wing gatherings in the past. Chandler was also criticized for recently writing a pre-Tory convention article for the March 15, 2005 issue of the Globe and Mail newspaper in which he criticized pro same-sex marriage Conservative MP Belinda Stronach as "a well-known liberal who has successfully infiltrated the new Conservative Party of Canada." He reiterated his statements on Stronach in a April 13 cover article on Belinda Stronach in Maclean's Magazine. [10] Chandler has suggested that he will be directing his lobby group activities towards unseating Stronach's Conservative Party nomination in her riding of Newmarket-Aurora for the next election. Chandler has noted that Stronach won her nomination for the last election by only 100 votes. Stronach received 512 votes while Lois Brown, the former Canadian Alliance candidate received 412 votes.

Chandler's influence in the new party has been extremely limited. His tendency to alienate and "burn through" political allies has become more noticeable in his rancorous relationship with the new Tory party. Yet his presence in the media, as CEO for Concerned Christians Canada Inc., has grown as of late. Due to the possible marginalization or "muzzling" of social conservative policies and MPs (see Randy White) in the new Conservative Party of Canada, Chandler has ended up becoming a de facto spokesperson and interviewee for the media on social conservative opinions and approaches to present day political issues and concerns in the country.

Chandler currently resides in Calgary, Alberta with his wife, Julie and their two children.

Quote

As a delegate to the 1997 provincial Social Credit Party of Alberta convention in Calgary, Chandler expressed disgust when a fellow delegate lambasted Oil and Gas Corporations for paying low wages, saying "I didn't realize we had Communists in our own party." [11]

External links

• [12] Progressive Group for Independent Business Webpage
• [13] 2Cards.ca Unite the Right Website
• [14] CBC News coverage of Chandler's campaign and convention speech
• [15] Concerned Christians Canada Inc. Webpage
• [16] Globe and Mail Article "The Right Way for Stephen Harper" by Craig B. Chandler