Peter Van Loan
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Peter Van Loan (born April 18, 1963) is a Canadian politician.
Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Van Loan is of Estonian heritage. His mother and grandparents fled Estonia during World War II and began a new life in Canada.
Van Loan was educated at the University of Toronto, and worked as a real esatte lawyer before being elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2004 election.
Van Loan is a prominent figure in the Conservative Party of Canada. He served as president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and then the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He resigned from the latter post in 2000 after a series of disagreements with its leader, Joe Clark.
Van Loan was a key figure in the unsuccessful attempt to convince Premier of New Brunswick Bernard Lord to run for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservatives in late 2002. He supported the "Yes" Campaign led by Tory Leader Peter MacKay to ratify the merger of the PC Party and the Canadian Alliance into the Conservative Party. Van Loan then again attempted to recruit Lord to run for the leadership of the new party.
Although he grew up and worked in Toronto, Van Loan was nominated as the candidate for the new Conservative Party of Canada to run in the 2004 election in the largely rural riding of York-Simcoe, where his family owns a farm.