Chuck Strahl
Encyclopedia
Charles Strahl, PC
Queen's Privy Council for Canada
The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...

, MP
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 (born February 25, 1957) was a politician in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada. He was a Member of Parliament in the governing Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

.

Before politics

Strahl was raised in British Columbia's Interior, attended Trinity Western University
Trinity Western University
Trinity Western University is a private, Christian liberal arts university located in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.The school was founded in 1962 as Trinity Junior College, and now enrolls approximately 4000 students and sits on a campus....

, and worked for a private logging and road building company called Cheam Construction, which was owned by his father Bill Strahl, and later by him and his siblings after his father died.

Entrance to politics

Shortly after the business failed, Strahl ran for office under the Reform Party banner. He was first elected to office in the Reform Party
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....

 sweep of the region in the 1993 election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...

. He was re-elected in the 1997
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...

 and 2000
Canadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....

 elections, running as a member of the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...

, which had replaced Reform, in 2000. He represented Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon
Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon
Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon is a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.-Geography:...

, a large riding comprising the Upper Fraser Valley
Fraser Valley
The Fraser Valley is the section of the Fraser River basin in southwestern British Columbia downstream of the Fraser Canyon. The term is sometimes used to refer to the Fraser Canyon and stretches upstream from there, but in general British Columbian usage of the term refers to the stretch of the...

, a primarily agricultural area of the province, and the Fraser Canyon
Fraser Canyon
The Fraser Canyon is an 84 km landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley...

-Lillooet
Lillooet Country
The Lillooet Country, also referred to as the Lillooet District., is a region spanning from the central Fraser Canyon town of Lillooet west to the valley of the Lillooet River, and including the valleys in between, in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Like other historical BC regions, it...

-Bridge River
Bridge River Country
The Bridge River Country is a historic geographic region and mining district in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, lying between the Fraser Canyon and the valley of the Lillooet River, south of the Chilcotin Plateau and north of the Lillooet Ranges...

 regions, which are mostly wilderness with a resource-based economy and also, like the Chilliwack area, have a significant First Nations population. He has held a number of shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...

 and committee positions.

Strahl first rose to national prominence in the summer of 2001, when he was the leader and most outspoken member of a group of Canadian Alliance MPs that left the Alliance caucus and sat as members of the Democratic Representative Caucus
Democratic Representative Caucus
The Democratic Representative Caucus was a group of Canadian Members of Parliament who left the Canadian Alliance in 2001 in protest against the leadership of Stockwell Day...

.

Strahl's own leadership ambitions were frustrated due to his inability to speak French as well as the lingering distrust amongst many colleagues over the perceived disloyalty shown to his party in 2001. He attempted to launch a bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, 2004
The 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election took place on March 20, 2004 in Toronto, Ontario, and resulted in the election of Stephen Harper as the first leader of the new Canadian Conservative Party...

, but was not able to secure enough financial or political support to launch a viable campaign. Strahl then supported Tony Clement
Tony Clement
Tony Peter Clement, PC, MP is a Canadian federal politician, President of the Treasury Board, Minister for the Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario and member of the Conservative Party of Canada....

 in his failed leadership bid.

At the outset of the 38th Parliament of Canada
38th Canadian Parliament
The 38th Canadian Parliament was in session from October 4, 2004 until November 29, 2005. The membership was set by the 2004 federal election on June 28, 2004, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections, but due to the seat distribution, those few changes significantly...

, Strahl was appointed Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees of the Whole under the new rules brought about as a result of the minority government situation.

Health problems

In August 2005, Strahl announced that he had been diagnosed with inoperable/terminal lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 as the result of exposure to asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

 many years prior. He noticed the problem in July of the same year when his lung collapsed twice.

However, despite his health problems, he successfully ran for re-election in the 2006 election. He later held various positions in the Cabinet such as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

On March 12, 2011, it was announced that he would not be seeking re-election in the upcoming federal election, which was held on May 2, 2011.

Personal life

Strahl married in 1975 and has four children.

On March 18, Mark Strahl
Mark Strahl
Mark Strahl is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2011 election. He represents the electoral district of Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon as a member of the Conservative Party...

 succeeded his father Chuck Strahl as nominee for the Conservative Party in the riding of Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon
Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon
Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon is a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.-Geography:...

. The nomination process, which is usually 4 weeks, lasted only a week. During the nomination Mark Strahl was endorsed by Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...

, who said "Mark Strahl - by virtue of his family background ...is well prepared for service in the House of Commons."

Former Chilliwack
Chilliwack, British Columbia
Chilliwack is a Canadian city in the Province of British Columbia. It is a predominantly agricultural community with an estimated population of 80,000 people. Chilliwack is the second largest city in the Fraser Valley Regional District after Abbotsford. The city is surrounded by mountains and...

 city councillor Casey Langbroek said most Conservative Party members from the riding were upset and that the nomination process effectively barred 80% of the party members from running. Alex Moens
Alex Moens
Alexander Moens is a professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute in the Centre for Canadian-American Relations. He teaches American Foreign Policy and the Political and Security Relations between Europe and North America. He is...

, another Conservative Party member said "High public office should not be like a family business
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....

, where it's passed on from father to son."

External links

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