Author:
CRAIG CHANDLER per jfh
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Date Posted: 13:39:44 03/06/03 Thu
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
Subject: United Conservative Movement
Dear Progressive Conservative Party of Canada Member,
My name is Craig Chandler and I write you this letter to request your support for my leadership bid of this proud party.
I hate to admit it, but we conservatives can learn something from the Liberals.
They've been successful at it for years. And that's how they continue to undermine conservatives, win policy battles and maintain governments throughout Canada at every level. The success I am referring to is a simple word called unity. It is not that we in the conservative movement can't unify, we just choose not to and this must change, especially with the upcoming federal election with the Liberals being led by Paul Martin.
I first got involved in politics in 1989 with the Reform Party of Canada and was one of the first Reform Party members when the party expanded east of the Manitoba border in 1990. This was the first party that I ever joined.
I was impressed by the bottom up, grassroots, democratic policies, and less government-lower taxes mentality of Preston Manning. I decided to get involved in a serious way and dedicate my life to helping the next generation of Canadians. I served on the Board of Directors for the Burlington Reform Party Constituency Association and helped organize several ridings for the Reform Party in Ontario.
In 1992, I co-founded the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) in response to Bob Rae and his socialist NDP. The PGIB very quickly became a force to be reckoned with and proudly helped the Mike Harris, Common Sense Revolution with PGIB policies. We helped prevent a divided right in Ontario through the efforts of an offshoot organization of the PGIB called Focus Federally for Refom which can be seen at http://www.2cards.ca under Movement History. Further information on PGIB itself can be viewed at http://www.pgib.ca
In 1993, I decided to run for Member of Parliament for the Reform Party in Burlington. I lost the nomination, but was immediately approached by 7 area ridings to seek the nomination for the Reform Party in their area. I chose Hamilton Mountain and ran against 5 other candidates in a hotly contested nomination. I won with over 67% of the vote.
I was 23 and my campaign slogan was "Blessed are the young for we shall inherit the debt". The media said that I was an extreme long shot and said that I would get 2% of the vote if I was lucky. I finished second to a Liberal in Hamilton with over 10,000 votes for a party that did not exist in the prior election. Not bad for a long shot. In 1993 I was concerned then as I am now that my generation, Generation Taxed not Generation X, has had its future mortgaged. We were simply out numbered 3 -1 and there was a massive health care crisis looming before us. Billions of dollars were going towards just the interest on the debt without even touching the principal.
I am sad to say that nothing has changed, other than increased corruption, graft, bribery, an erosion of family values, activist judges, child pornography and the list goes on. This is the legacy of the Liberals and without a united conservative movement in this nation, I am very much concerned that things will get dramatically worse for our children and grandchildren.
I came to the conclusion quite some time ago that what ails Canada will not be cured with a divided conservative movement; in fact it is to a large degree the reason these problems exist and are being perpetuated. I then took out a membership in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1998 and have been a proud member ever since.
We have been travelling a road of vote splitting and holding onto the baggage of past transgressions within the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The Canadian Alliance has chosen a new leader that has clearly shown on many occasions that unity between the conservative family is important. With my candidacy, we now have an opportunity to elect a Canadian Alliance friendly leader within the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. We must work together.
We must end the feud. We must rid ourselves of the posturing type leadership we have seen in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. It is really that simple.
I am a less government, lower taxes and political accountability candidate with a wide range of policies that can be viewed at http://www.2cards.ca under my policy section. However, the most important policy during this entire election is uniting the conservative movement and working together with the Canadian Alliance to end the Liberal monopoly and death grip the Trudeau and Chrétien regime has had on Canada for all these years.
Quite frankly, if any of the other candidates truly wanted to unite the conservative movement they would have done more than merely pay lip service to this crucial problem during a leadership race. My thumbnail sketch of my opponents can be characterized as follows:
David Orchard is not a conservative.
Peter McKay and Scott Brison are on record as anti-Alliance.
Jim Prentice has a chameleon like approach, depending on which part of the country he is speaking.
Heward Graffety is part of the problem in our party and why we are no longer government.
Andre Bachand represents only the interests of one particular province.
I am the only leadership candidate that is a 2 card carrier, a member of both the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. I am similar to a child in a separated family where my mother is the Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance is my father and I am just desperately trying to get my family back together.
This leadership race is quite simply about uniting the conservative movement and nothing more! All our policy positions are absolutely irrelevant unless we are united. We need to elect a leader that will sit down in good faith with Stephen Harper and work out a parliamentary coalition before the next federal election. Mr. Harper needs to be able to negotiate with someone that he can trust and I am that man. I believe that I best represent the hope of success for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
I ask for you to look at my website at http://www.2cards.ca in detail and support me both publicly and privately. I may not be the establishment's choice, nor am I the media's favourite son, but if you truly want to see the conservative movement in Canada returned to its former glory, then supporting me is the right and principled choice to make.
I hope to be hearing from you soon.
Let's Get It Together,
Craig B. Chandler
PC Leadership Candidate
Headquarters: 519-856-1634
P.S. If you need to renew your membership or know people that would like to support a united conservative movement have them sign up on-line at http://www.pcparty.ca/doc/510/ or by calling our headquarters at 519-856-1634
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