David Cameron Chatters (April 15, 1946 – January 25, 2016) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2006, representing the riding of

Athabasca Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada, āthap-āsk-ā-w (pronounced ), meaning "grass or reeds here and there". Most places named Athabasca are found in Alberta, Canada. Athabasca may a ...

until the 2004 election, after which he represented

Westlock—St. Paul Westlock—St. Paul (briefly known as Battle River) was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. It included Westlock County, Sturgeon C ...

. Born in

Westlock, Alberta Westlock is a town in central Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1913, the town is primarily an agricultural, business, and government administration centre serving communities and rural areas within surrounding Westlock County. Geography Westlock i ...

, Chatters, formerly a farmer and rancher, was first elected as a member of the

Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada (french: Parti réformiste du Canada) was a right-wing populist and conservative federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada-based protest ...

(1993–2000), which became the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed ...

in 2000, which became the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. For over 10 years, he was the Senior Opposition Critic for Natural Resources and was a Deputy Whip of the Official Opposition. He was the Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics, but health reasons made Chatters retire at the 2006 election. In May 1996, he was suspended from the Reform Party caucus for asserting, in the wake of the Delwin Vriend case on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

human rights, that schools should have the right to fire openly gay teachers."Gay Rights Bill Passes"
''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'', May 13, 1996. Another caucus colleague who had made a similar comment, Bob Ringma, was suspended at the same time; a third caucus colleague,

Jan Brown Janet (Jan) Corinne Brown (born June 23, 1947 in Nanaimo, British Columbia) is a Canadian former politician. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Reform Party of Canada ticket in the Alberta riding of Calgary Southeast in th ...

, was also suspended at the same time for publicly criticizing Chatters and Ringma. All three were readmitted to the Reform caucus by September of that year. He died at the age of 69 on January 25, 2016. He had pancreatic cancer.

Electoral record

References

External links

How'd They Vote?: David Chatters' voting history and quotes
* 1946 births 2016 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Reform Party of Canada MPs Canadian Alliance MPs Conservative Party of Canada MPs People from Westlock County 21st-century Canadian politicians Deaths from pancreatic cancer {{Alberta-politician-stub