Cheryl Gallant - Definition and Overview

Cheryl Gallant (born May 23, 1960 in Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian politician.

Gallant is currently a member of the Conservative Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke since 2000. She was also a member of the Canadian Alliance from 2000 to 2003. Gallant is a former office manager. She is a former Deputy House Leader of the Official Opposition and the Canadian Alliance Deputy House Leader. She has also served as opposition critic of Canadian Heritage, Amateur Sport, and the National Capital Commission, and she is the current critic of Science Research and Development, the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, and of Small Business. In 2004 she was voted as the ideal Conservative leader by staffers of the Liberal and NDP parties.

Gallant has occasionally made controversial remarks which has drawn the ire of opponents. In 2002, she was accused of making anti-gay remarks to then Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham when during an heated exchange she kept interrupting "Ask your boyfriend" or "How's your boyfriend?" (Graham's sexuality has been occasionally the target of rumours in Frank Magazine, but he is married with children.) Gallant later apologized. [1] (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/04/15/canada/gay010415)

During the 2004 Canadian election a small controversy erupted when Gallant compared abortion to the beheading of Nick Berg. The Conservative Party then announced that she was suffering from laryngitis and after this she did not make any more remarks.