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Chris Bradshaw is a Canadian politician and a high standing member of the Green Party of Canada.
Bradshaw is an Ottawa-based entrepreneur who runs an environmentally friendly car-rental service for businessmen travelling to Canada's capital city. Born in Vancouver, BC, he was the first of six children in his family. Bradshaw spent much of his childhood growing up in Calgary and eventually moved to Ottawa. Bradshaw has always been interested in politics and particularly environmental issues.
He has been active in the Green Party for many years. In 2001, after Joan Russow resigned as leader of the federal Green Party, Bradshaw was appointed to be the party's interim leader. Under Bradshaw's direction, the federal Green Party directed its resources to several provincial elections. Bradshaw also helped organize the 2003 Green Party Leadership Convention in Ottawa. In 2003, Chris Bradshaw was succeeded by current federal Green Party leader Jim Harris.
In October 2003, Bradshaw ran in the Ontario provincial election as the Ottawa Centre candidate for the Green Party of Ontario. Bradshaw received 7.75% (3821) of the votes cast in the riding.
In the Canadian federal election, 2004, Bradshaw ran as a "parachute" federal Green Party candidate in the rural Ottawa Valley riding of Leeds-Grenville, replacing Jerry Heath, who had decided not to run federally after participating in the exhausting provincial election campaign of 2003. Despite the last-minute substitution, Bradshaw received 5.5% of the votes cast (2722), a dramatic improvement over the 2000 federal election Leeds-Grenville Green Party result of 1.73% (820). However Liberal MP Joe Jordan was defeated in Leeds-Grenville, in part due to Bradshaw's very strong showing. Jordan had actually introduced Green-authored legislation, the Canada Well-Being Measurement Act, to the Canadian House of Commons, and achieved passage of part of it into law - an achievement no Canadian Green politician has been able to match.
Bradshaw remains active in Green Party politics and affairs.
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