Jake Hoeppner
Encyclopedia
Jake E. Hoeppner is a former Canadian
politician. He served in the Canadian House of Commons
from 1993 to 2000, initially with the Reform Party
and later as an independent Member of Parliament
(MP).
Hoeppner was born on a Russia
n Mennonite
family in Morden
, Manitoba
, did not finish high school, and worked a farmer for thirty-five years. Between 1968 and 1984, he served on the Snowflake School Board, and Pembina Valley School Board and the MCI Collegiate Board (Gretna). He was also a member of the Provisional Board of Keystone Agricultural Producers, District 2 and Southern Co-op Feeders Ltd. He first became a public figure in 1971, when he opposed the provincial government's crop-insurance scheme and received twice what he was initially promised in a hailstone-damage claim.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1993 federal election
, defeating Liberal
candidate Grant Johnson by 4,655 votes in Lisgar—Marquette
. Hoeppner was the only Reform MP to be elected from a Manitoba
riding in this election, and was one of only two party MPs elected east of Saskatchewan
.
Hoeppner launched a lawsuit against the Canadian Wheat Board
in 1995, alleging that the board had charged insufficient buy-back prices to grain companies and had not properly distributed the money it received. The case was thrown out of court in 1998, and Hoeppner was order to pay the Wheat Board's legal fees. Hoeppner has alleged that the Wheat Board withholds information from producers, though others have disputed his claims.
In 1996, he spoke out against a federal measure that extended anti-discrimination provisions to homosexuals by claiming that homosexuality
was the cause of civil war in Liberia
and Zambia
. These comments were widely ridiculed, and Foreign Affairs Minister
Lloyd Axworthy
referred to Hoeppner's observations as "probably the most ultimate example of stupidity I've seen (from) a Reform MP".
He was re-elected in the 1997 election
, defeating Progressive Conservative
candidate Brian Pallister
by 1,449 votes in the redistributed riding of Portage—Lisgar
. Pallister had been a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, and was seen by some as the favourite to win the riding.
After the election, Hoeppner promoted the idea of running provincial Reform Party candidates in Manitoba (there had previously been an organization called the Reform Party of Manitoba, but it was not affiliated with the federal party). One independent Reformer campaigned in a 1997 provincial by-election, but the idea went no further. He considered leaving the party in 1998, but chose to stay after receiving promises that it would devote more attention to agriculture.
Hoeppner was excluded from the Reform Party caucus on July 27, 1999, after criticizing party leader Preston Manning
and strategist Rick Anderson for their plans to fold Reform into the United Alternative. Hoeppner later announced his plans to challenge Manning for the United Alternative leadership, though this came to nothing. He was permanently expelled from caucus later in the year, and changed his parliamentary designation to "Independent Reform" on September 28. On April 4, 2000, he changed his designation to "Independent". Hoepnner was accused of assaulting Reform MP Inky Mark
as a meeting in September 1999, but was cleared of the charge in May 2000.
He sought re-election in the 2000 federal campaign
and this time finished a distant fourth against Pallister, who was now a candidate of the Canadian Alliance
. Hoeppner openly used $10,500 taken from the Portage—Lisgar Canadian Alliance Association in this election, claiming that the money belonged to him. The Alliance later sued to recover the money.
Hoeppner once blamed women for inciting male violence, claiming "as kids we were always taught at home when we went to get the cattle out of the pasture not to wear red because it would infuriate the bull".
After leaving office, Hoeppner was involved with "Farmers for Justice", a conservative agrarian group seeking to reduce the powers of the Canadian Wheat Board
Hoeppner was later skeptical about efforts to merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservatives to form the Conservative Party of Canada
He also brought a series of lawsuits against former leaders of the Reform Party, including one in 2004 for "embarrassment, damage to his reputation and humiliation" resulting from his expulsion from the party five years earlier.
Hoeppner's brother Walter has campaigned for the Manitoba Liberal Party
at the provincial level.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
politician. He served in the Canadian House of Commons
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...
from 1993 to 2000, initially with 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....
and later as an independent Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP).
Hoeppner was born on a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
family in Morden
Morden, Manitoba
Morden is a small town with a population of 6571 located in the Pembina Valley region of southern Manitoba, Canada. Morden is less than ten minutes west of neighbouring Winkler, and a relatively short distance to Pembina Valley Provincial Park...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, did not finish high school, and worked a farmer for thirty-five years. Between 1968 and 1984, he served on the Snowflake School Board, and Pembina Valley School Board and the MCI Collegiate Board (Gretna). He was also a member of the Provisional Board of Keystone Agricultural Producers, District 2 and Southern Co-op Feeders Ltd. He first became a public figure in 1971, when he opposed the provincial government's crop-insurance scheme and received twice what he was initially promised in a hailstone-damage claim.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1993 federal 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...
, defeating Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
candidate Grant Johnson by 4,655 votes in Lisgar—Marquette
Lisgar—Marquette
Lisgar—Marquette was a federal electoral district in the province of Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997.This riding was created in 1987 from parts of Lisgar and Portage—Marquette ridings....
. Hoeppner was the only Reform MP to be elected from a Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
riding in this election, and was one of only two party MPs elected east of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
.
Hoeppner launched a lawsuit against the Canadian Wheat Board
Canadian Wheat Board
The Canadian Wheat Board was established by the Parliament of Canada on 5 July 1935 as a mandatory producer marketing system for wheat and barley in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small part of British Columbia...
in 1995, alleging that the board had charged insufficient buy-back prices to grain companies and had not properly distributed the money it received. The case was thrown out of court in 1998, and Hoeppner was order to pay the Wheat Board's legal fees. Hoeppner has alleged that the Wheat Board withholds information from producers, though others have disputed his claims.
In 1996, he spoke out against a federal measure that extended anti-discrimination provisions to homosexuals by claiming that homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
was the cause of civil war in Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
. These comments were widely ridiculed, and Foreign Affairs Minister
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....
Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Norman Axworthy, PC, OC, OM is a prominent Canadian politician, statesman and University President from Manitoba. He is best known for having served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien...
referred to Hoeppner's observations as "probably the most ultimate example of stupidity I've seen (from) a Reform MP".
He was re-elected in the 1997 election
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...
, defeating Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
candidate Brian Pallister
Brian Pallister
Brian William Pallister is a Canadian politician. He represented the riding of Portage—Lisgar in the Canadian House of Commons from 2000 to 2008. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1992 to 1997, and was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Gary Filmon...
by 1,449 votes in the redistributed riding of Portage—Lisgar
Portage—Lisgar
Portage—Lisgar is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997.-Demographics:-Geography:...
. Pallister had been a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, and was seen by some as the favourite to win the riding.
After the election, Hoeppner promoted the idea of running provincial Reform Party candidates in Manitoba (there had previously been an organization called the Reform Party of Manitoba, but it was not affiliated with the federal party). One independent Reformer campaigned in a 1997 provincial by-election, but the idea went no further. He considered leaving the party in 1998, but chose to stay after receiving promises that it would devote more attention to agriculture.
Hoeppner was excluded from the Reform Party caucus on July 27, 1999, after criticizing party leader 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...
and strategist Rick Anderson for their plans to fold Reform into the United Alternative. Hoeppner later announced his plans to challenge Manning for the United Alternative leadership, though this came to nothing. He was permanently expelled from caucus later in the year, and changed his parliamentary designation to "Independent Reform" on September 28. On April 4, 2000, he changed his designation to "Independent". Hoepnner was accused of assaulting Reform MP Inky Mark
Inky Mark
Inky Mark is a Canadian politician and a former member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette. Mark is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada....
as a meeting in September 1999, but was cleared of the charge in May 2000.
He sought re-election in the 2000 federal campaign
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....
and this time finished a distant fourth against Pallister, who was now a candidate 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...
. Hoeppner openly used $10,500 taken from the Portage—Lisgar Canadian Alliance Association in this election, claiming that the money belonged to him. The Alliance later sued to recover the money.
Hoeppner once blamed women for inciting male violence, claiming "as kids we were always taught at home when we went to get the cattle out of the pasture not to wear red because it would infuriate the bull".
After leaving office, Hoeppner was involved with "Farmers for Justice", a conservative agrarian group seeking to reduce the powers of the Canadian Wheat Board
Canadian Wheat Board
The Canadian Wheat Board was established by the Parliament of Canada on 5 July 1935 as a mandatory producer marketing system for wheat and barley in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small part of British Columbia...
Hoeppner was later skeptical about efforts to merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservatives to form the 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...
He also brought a series of lawsuits against former leaders of the Reform Party, including one in 2004 for "embarrassment, damage to his reputation and humiliation" resulting from his expulsion from the party five years earlier.
Hoeppner's brother Walter has campaigned for the Manitoba Liberal Party
Manitoba Liberal Party
The Manitoba Liberal Party is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late nineteenth-century, following the province's creation in 1870.-Origins and early development :...
at the provincial level.