The Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) is a membership-funded business and taxpayer association in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

founded in 1992 with the goal of promoting the interests of their membership, which consists of small-business owners, entrepreneurs and taxpayers. The firm also offers lobbying services and full-service campaign consulting. Its CEO is

Craig Chandler Craig B. Chandler is a Canadian businessman, lobbyist, and political activist. He is co-founder and CEO of the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB). He was a candidate at the federal 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership conventi ...

. Since the mid-1990s, the PGIB has claimed to have influenced the development of some of the policies of the

Common Sense Revolution The phrase Common Sense Revolution (CSR) has been used as a political slogan to describe conservative platforms with a main goal of reducing taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the size and role of government. It has been used in places ...

platform that elected

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

leader

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...

to provincial government. The PGIB also claims that in its 1995 campaign "Focus Federally for Reform" (FFR), it successfully restrained the Reform Party from creating a provincial party in Ontario, thereby splitting the right-wing provincial vote. In 1998, under the auspices of the PGIB, Chandler organized the " Unite the Right - Roots of Change" conference in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The conference included

social conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...

delegates from the

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

and Progressive Conservative Parties. It was criticized for also including representatives of the

Christian Heritage Party of Canada The Christian Heritage Party of Canada (french: Parti de l'héritage chrétien du Canada), also referred to as CHP Canada, is a minor social conservative and Christian right federal political party in Canada; it was founded in 1987, the brainch ...

Confederation of Regions Party The Confederation of Regions Party (CoR) was a right-wing federal political party in Canada founded in 1984 by Elmer Knutson. It was founded as a successor to the Western Canada Federation (West-Fed), a non-partisan organization, to fight the Libe ...

Freedom Party of Ontario The Freedom Party of Ontario (FPO, french: Parti de la Liberté – Ontario) is a provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was founded on January 1, 1984, in London, Ontario by Robert Metz and Marc Emery. The Freedom Party has fielded c ...

Renaissance Canada Renaissance Canada was a conservative lobby group founded in 1974 by Christian activist Ken Campbell to promote "parent power" in education. It is known for its involvement in its attempt to remove from school curricula works such as novels of Mar ...

and the

Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. Attendees also included conservative commentators

Michael Coren Michael Coren (born 15 January 1959) is a British-Canadian writer and clergyman. A long-time television personality, Coren hosted '' The Michael Coren Show'' on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 before moving to the Sun News Ne ...

and Linda Leatherdale. In 2003 the PGIB launched the "2cards.ca" initiativeCanadian Alliance/Progressive Conservative website
/ref> that called for a

United Alternative The Unite the Right movement was a successful Canadian political movement which existed from around the mid-1990s to 2003. The movement came into being when it became clear that neither of Canada's two main right-of-centre political parties, the ...

. Chandler ran as the PGIB candidate in the

Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 2003 The 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held on May 31, 2003, to elect a leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Peter MacKay was elected as leader to replace former Prime Minister Joe Clark, who then retired as ...

. In June 2009, Mark Dyrholm the group's National Vice President and a

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Chiropractor. Ran for the Leadership of the newly former

Wildrose Alliance Party The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Albe ...

to succeed

Paul Hinman Paul Hinman (born 1959) is a Canadian politician and businessman. He is the former leader of the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta since 2020 and was formerly the leader of the Wildrose Alliance (2008–2009) and Alberta Alliance Party (20 ...

in their 2009 Leadership Convention. In the end Dyrholm lost to

Danielle Smith Marlaina Danielle Smith (born April 1, 1971) is a Canadian politician and journalist who has been serving as the 19th premier of Alberta since October 11, 2022, and leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) since October 6, 2022. Smith ent ...

an Alberta journalist and broadcaster. In 2022, the group launched an email marketing campaign which targeted small businesses. Despite many complaints, the PGIB made it impossible to be removed from their server lists and uninterested business owners continues to receive emails from the PGIB.

References

External links

Progressive Group for Independent Business Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Progressive Group For Independent Business Conservatism in Canada Political advocacy groups in Canada