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The Christian Heritage Party of Canada is a federal political party in Canada.
This social conservative party held its founding convention in Hamilton, Ontario in November 1987, where Ed Vanwoudenberg was elected its first leader. Ron Gray has been the party's leader since 1995.
The party nominated candidates for the first time in the 1988 federal election, and ran numerous candidates in the 1993 and 1997 elections. It was unable to field 50 candidates in the 2000 election and was consequently deregistered by Elections Canada, the government elections agency. The party was re-registered in time for the 2004 election.
Many of its founders had been members of Social Credit. The party's explicit goal is to "apply proven Judeo-Christian principles of justice and compassion to Canada's contemporary public policy needs".¹ The party claims that it seeks to represent all Christians in Canada, but that they acknowledge many Christians are members of other parties, and they specifically deny any interest in converting Canadians to Christianity. They claim to be Canada's only pro-life federal political party, and emphasize that Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms acknowledges "God" (in their interpretation meaning the Judeo-Christian God) in its preamble. Other policies include staunch opposition to same sex marriage and a subsidy for parents raising children, to encourage women to stay at home rather than working. The party today is similar to Christian democratic parties in Europe and the US Constitution Party.
Electoral activity
| Election |
# of candidates |
# of votes |
% of popular vote |
| 1988 |
63 |
103,533 |
0.78% |
| 1993 |
58 |
30,455 |
0.22% |
| 1997 |
53 |
29,085 |
0.22% |
| 2000 |
* |
* |
* |
| 2004 |
62 |
40,283 |
0.3% |
National leaders
National executive committee
- President - Tom Kroesbergen
- Vice President - Bill Boesterd
- National Secretary - Margaret Purcell
- Interim National Treasurer - Louis (Luke) Kwantes
- Prayer, Ethics, Personnel Director - Pastor Eric Pennings
Provincial presidents
- British Columbia, Ed Vanwoudenberg
- Alberta, Sya Strydhorst
- Saskatchewan, Vacant
- Manitoba, Rob Scott
- Ontario, Peter J. Ellis
- Québec, Laurent Filion
- Nova Scotia, Vacant
- Prince Edward Island, Mary Baglole
- New Brunswick, Vacant
- Newfoundland and Labrador, Vacant
- Yukon, Geoff Capp
- Nunavut, vacant
References
¹ "About the CHP" from their Web site (http://www.chp.ca/aboutTheCHP/)
² CHP FAQ (http://freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/chp/faq.html)
External links
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