Craig Chandler
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Craig B. Chandler (born 1970) is a Canadian politician. He was a United Alternative candidate at the 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. He is a co-founder of the Progressive Group for Independent Business, and currently serves as an executive director of the organization.
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Early political experience
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, and was an organizer and fundraiser for the then fledgling party. In the 1993 federal election, Chandler ran as a Reform Party candidate in the riding of Hamilton Mountain. He finished in second place with nearly 11,000 votes.
Chandler then moved to Alberta, and ran in the 1997 provincial election. He ran as a 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 1,100 votes, or 7.5% of the electorate. He was the most popularly supported urban Social Credit candidate in that election.
In 2000, Chandler supported the creation of the Canadian Alliance and supported Stockwell Day in his bid to become Alliance leader. A few years later in 2002, Chandler and the PGIB diverted their resources to Stephen Harper's successful bid for the leadership of the Alliance. In 2003, Chandler took out a membership in the Progressive Conservative Party in order to run in that party's 2003 leadership race. He ran on a platform of creating a coalition between the PC and Alliance party caucuses. 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 PC leadership 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." [1] (http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/article.jsp?content=20030616_60669_60669). 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 added 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 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 was complementary of the leadership qualities of his 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 [2] (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2003/05/30/convention_tory030530.html).
Impact in the leadership race
Ultimately Chandler was a marginal candidate during the race, though his bid for leader did receive support from some. 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 the citizens of the United States for the Government of Canada's unwillingness to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, his candidacy was largely ignored by the media until the dying days of the campaign. Mr. Chandler was quoted in the Globe and Mail and the National Post (May 29, 2003) that he had never tried to win the leadership of the PC Party, but had instead served as a an instrument of the Progressive Group for Independent Business and their unite the right efforts. PGIB members donated $250,000 to Mr. Chandler's bid.
Some political analysts have suggested that despite being a marginal candidate, Chandler did have some influence on the final results of the leadership race [3] (http://www.pgib.ca/2cards/pages/english/content/history/PCRace.htm) . 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. As Chandler withdrew from the race in time to be removed from the first ballot, his supporters are believed to have likely voted in favour of Jim Prentice, who Chandler had endorsed.
After a second ballot, 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 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 during the March 2005 Conservative Party of Canada policy convention in Montreal. Both times he criticized Stephen Harper's ambiguous positions on perennial social conservative issues such as abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and civil union rights. Chandler also suggested that he resented Harper's attempts to "shut-up" socially conservative MPs.
Recently, Chandler 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.
In February of 2004, Chandler suggested on CBC Newsworld that he would 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. This choice of riding is believed to be because of Prentice's continuing votes in favour of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada. However, Chandler's intentions were prematurely thwarted when the March CPC Policy Convention in Montreal voted in favour of allowing sitting Tory MPs to gain their nominations uncontested in minority government scenarios where elections are less predictable.
In November 2004 during the 2004 Alberta Provincial Election Craig Chandler managed the campaign of David Crutcher, an Alberta Alliance candidate in Calgary Egmont. That campaign ended up netting the highest percent of votes for the Alliance in a urban area.
David Crutcher has announced his intention to run for leadership of the Alberta Alliance. It is unknown if Craig will manage his leadership campaign.
Chandler wrote 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 MP Belinda Stronach, then a Conservative, 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 [4] (http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/article.jsp?content=20050418_103696_103696) .
Recent events surrounding Stronach's defection to the Liberal Party of Canada would appear to corroborate Chandler's statements. In an interview on the program CBC News: The Hour with host George Stroumboulopoulos, Chandler suggested that Stronach's discomfort with the new party's policies was a sign that the new party would not be just another liberal party and that her defection was "a victory for family values supporters." Chandler has suggested that he will be directing his lobby group activities towards defeating Stronach's re-election campaign in her riding of Newmarket—Aurora for the next election. Chandler has noted that Stronach won the riding by only 600 votes and he believes that a suitable Tory candidate could beat her. Chandler has suggested that Lois Brown, the former Canadian Alliance candidate for Newmarket—Aurora, would be a stong competitor against Stronach, should Brown decide to run again.
In late May of 2005, Chandler helped organize a Marriage Rally in Toronto, Ontario that attracted 10,000 people.
Chandler also currently hosts his own radio show on AM 1140 in Calgary.
Chandler currently resides in Calgary with his wife and children.
External links
- CBC News coverage of Chandler's campaign and convention speech (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2003/05/30/convention_tory030530.html)
- Globe and Mail Article "The Right Way for Stephen Harper" by Chandler (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050315.wweb-chandler15/BNStory/National)
- [5] (http://www.freedomradionetwork.ca) Freedom Radio Network AM 1140 Calgary