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Craig B. Chandler (born 1970) was a candidate at the 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.
Early Lobbying Activities
A Christian conservative, Chandler had been an Ontario activist in the Reform Party of Canada and its successors, the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party of Canada. He is the President and co-founder of the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB). The PGIB is a right-wing think-tank and lobby group that carried particular influence on the policies of the Mike Harris government in Ontario. The PGIB was also successful in its 1995 campaign "Focus Federally for Reform" that encouraged the Reform Party not to create provincial parties and risk splitting the right-wing provincial vote in the provinces. In 1997, under the auspices of the PGIB, Chandler organized a controversial "Unite the Right" conference in Hamilton, Ontario. The conference attracted media attention for not just including delegates from the Reform and Progressive Conservative Parties but also officials from the far-right federal Christian Heritage Party of Canada and Confederation of Regions Party and the Freedom Party of Ontario.
Political Activities
In 1989 Chandler joined the Reform Party of Canada. He served on the Board of Directors of the Burlington RPC constituency association. In 1993, at the age of 23, Chandler ran as the Reform Party candidate in the riding of Hamilton-Mountain and came in a surprising second place finish. In 2000, Chandler supported the creation of the Canadian Alliance and supported Stockwell Day in his bid to become Alliance leader. In 2002, Chandler and the PGIB diverted their resources to Stephen Harper's successful leadership bid. In 2003, Chandler took out a membership in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in order to run for the leadership 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.
Chandler's Infamous Leadership Race Speech
The night before the convention Chandler gained notoriety and condemnation after delivering a platform that the Canadian Press described as homophobic, fundamentalist and neo conservative to the bone. Rick Salutin, covering the event for Macleans Magazine, described Chandler as "the dark face of fundamental social conservatism." Chandler's statements were called "bitter and resentful" by frontrunner Peter MacKay whom Chandler attacked in his speech for MacKay's support of Bill C-4-15. C-4-15 amended the Criminal Code of Canada to treat violent actions specificlly based on homophobic prejudicial sentiment as hate crime. Chandler suggested the law would lead to the banning of the Bible and other religious texts. His presentation was booed by some delegates. Interestingly enough, in his speech Chandler did not actually call for a formal union of the PC and CA parties, but rather advocated a coalition between the two parties. Chandler posited that elected conservative MPs would run uncontested for their nominations and stand as sole right of centre candidates in their respective ridings in the next election. Chandler then postulated that Liberal/NDP/Bloq ridings where the PCs ran second would then have a single PC candidate running as the right of centre choice in the next election and vice versa for ridings where the CA came in second. At the end of his speech Chandler suprised many by being generously complementary of the leadership qualities of competitors David Orchard and Scott Brison, before endorsing and pledging support to Jim Prentice's leadership bid to the astonishment of many delegates in attendance.
Impact in the 2003 Progressive Conservative Leadership Race
Ultimately Chandler was a marginal candidate during the race. Prior to the convention Chandler recieved little coverage and like many other marginal candidates before him (see Rev. Harold Lloyd Henderson), he was not expected to have any impact on the final results. With the exception of his statements in one Debate on CPAC where he openly apologized to Americans for Canada's unwillingness to participate in the War on Iraq (which did recieve thunderous applause from the Tory audience in attendance and was quoted in the press) his leadership bid was largely ignored by the media until the final days of the campaign.
Yet, some political analysts have suggested that despite being a marginal candidate Chandler did manage to have some influence on the results of the leadership race. While Chandler suggested that he had as many as 103 "undeclared" delegates most analysts suggest that Chandler only had 12 committed delegates from a few Calgary riding associations. Chandler withdrew from the race too late to be removed from the first ballot. He was therefore formally defeated on the first ballot with 0 recorded delegates (his supporters voted in favour of Prentice). On the second ballot however, Red Tory Leadership contender 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 recieved a slight boost in size from defections by some of fellow Nova Scotia Tory MP Peter MacKay's delegates. Many political analysts have wondered, given the historic aftermath of the 2003 Progressive Conservative 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.
Aftermath
After the Tory leadership race, Chandler quickly receded from the public eye. He resurfaced briefly during the 2004 Canadian election, criticizing Stephen Harper's ambiguous positions on perrenial social conservative issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage rights. Chandler also suggested that he resented Harper's attempts to "shut-up" socially conservative MPs. Chandler recently became CEO of the religious lobby group Concerned Christians Coalition, a political lobby organization that rallies support for Evangelical Christian MPs and causes. Chandler currently resides in Calgary, Alberta. Ironically, Chandler recently suggested on CBC Newsworld that he will be campaigning for the Conservative nomination in the riding of Calgary North Centre which is currently represented by Jim Prentice.
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