Craig Chandler - Progressive Conservative Leadership Campaign

Progressive Conservative Leadership Campaign

In 2003, Chandler joined the Progressive Conservative Party and became a candidate for the party's leadership, running on a platform of creating a coalition between the PC and Alliance party caucuses. He withdrew prior to voting and endorsed Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice, who also supported cooperation between the parties.

James Muldoon, a fundraiser for front runner Peter MacKay, described Chandler as "the true black face of neoconservatism. He could live to be 100 and he'll never know the meaning of, I am my brother's keeper." Chandler's statements were called "bitter and resentful" by MacKay, whom Chandler criticized for supporting of the passage of Criminal Code of Canada amendment Bill C-250 that added homosexuals to the list of groups protected by hate crimes legislation. Chandler suggested that the amendment would lead to the banning of the Bible and other religious texts in schools and public libraries. Chandler complimented Tory MP Elsie Wayne on what he described as her "honest statements" about homosexuals, suggesting that no one has to apologize for having an opinion, even if it is not politically correct. This section of his twenty minute speech was booed by many delegates.

Chandler also called for a formal union of the PC and CA parties, advocating an electoral coalition between the two parties that would eventually lead to a merger. Chandler proposed that:

• Currently elected PC and CA MPs would run uncontested for their nominations and stand as sole right-of-centre candidates in their respective ridings in the next election;
• Liberal Party, New Democratic Party or Bloc Québécois ridings where the PCs ran closest to first-place in the 2000 election would have a PC candidate running as the sole right-of-centre choice in the next election and vice versa for ridings where CA candidates came closest to first-place.
• After the next election, the elected parliamentary caucuses of both parties would work towards a full-fledged merger.

At the end of his speech Chandler was complimentary of the leadership qualities of his competitors David Orchard and Scott Brison, before endorsing and pledging support to Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice's leadership bid to the astonishment of many delegates in attendance.

Chandler has claimed that he was asked to run for the leadership of the PC Party by Stephen Harper, at that time leader of the Canadian Alliance and Leader of the Official Opposition.

With the exception of statements in one debate on CPAC where he openly apologized to the citizens of the United States for the Government of Canada's unwillingness to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, his candidacy was largely ignored by the media until the last days of the campaign. Chandler admitted in the Globe and Mail and the National Post (May 29, 2003) that he had never tried to seriously contest the leadership of the PC Party, but had instead served as a voice for the Progressive Group for Independent Business and their United Alternative efforts. PGIB donated $250,000 to Chandler's bid.