Robert J. "Rob" Anders (born April 1, 1972) is a Canadian former politician. He represented the
riding of
Calgary West
Calgary West was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1953, and from 1979 to 2015. It was in the western part of the City of Calgary.
The electoral district was ...
from
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
until 2015 and was a founding member of the
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...
.
On April 12, 2014, Anders was defeated by former provincial minister
Ron Liepert
Ronald Liepert (born October 8, 1949) is a Canadian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament for Calgary Signal Hill in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Cabinet of Alberta as Minister of Finance, Energy, Heal ...
for the Conservative nomination in
Calgary Signal Hill
Calgary Signal Hill is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015.
Calgary Signal Hill was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was leg ...
, which included the bulk of his former riding, for the
next federal election.
On September 20, 2014, Anders was defeated for a second time in an attempt to gain the nomination in
Bow River
The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These w ...
by
Brooks
Brooks may refer to:
Places
;Antarctica
*Cape Brooks
;Canada
*Brooks, Alberta
;United States
* Brooks, Alabama
* Brooks, Arkansas
*Brooks, California
*Brooks, Georgia
* Brooks, Iowa
* Brooks, Kentucky
* Brooks, Maine
* Brooks Township, Michigan ...
mayor
Martin Shields
Martin Shields (born April 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Bow River in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election.
Prior to his election, he served as the mayor of Bro ...
.
Early life
Anders was born in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
,
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
. He graduated from the
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
with a bachelor of arts degree in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
. At the time of his first election in 1997 he served as the director of Canadians Against Forced Unionism, an organization related to the
National Citizens Coalition.
Parliamentary career
Anders was first elected as the
Reform Party MP for Calgary West in 1997, at age 25. The seat had been vacated when the former MP for the riding,
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
, resigned in 1996. It was expected that Anders would run in a by-election, but the 1997 election was called earlier than expected.
Bills introduced
In March 2003 Anders introduced Bill C-414 as a private members' bill. It was entitled "An Act to amend the Special Economic Measures Act (no foreign aid to countries that do not respect religious freedom)." The purpose of the bill was to stop Canadian government from spending the foreign aid budget in countries that did not allow for religious freedom.
Anders introduced Bill C-570 on January 29, 2014, which would amend the criminal code to provide for mandatory minimum sentences for rape.
36th Parliament (1997–2000)
Anders was elected as a member of the
Reform Party (1997–2000) and converted to 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 u ...
in 2000.
Anders served in several different critic roles in opposition. First as critic of the Senate from June 16, 1998 to 1999 as well as associate critic for Human Resource Development from his first election to July 31, 2000. In August 2000 he was appointed associate critic for Citizenship and Immigration.
Along with fellow newly elected MPs
Jason Kenney
Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022 and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member of ...
,
Monte Solberg
Monte Kenton Solberg, (born September 17, 1958) is a Canadian businessman and politician. Solberg is a former Member of Parliament, representing the riding of Medicine Hat in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party o ...
,
Rahim Jaffer
Rahim Nizar Jaffer ( ur, رحيم جعفر; born December 15, 1971) is a former Canadian politician. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2008, representing the Alberta riding of Edmonton—Strathcona as a member of the Con ...
and advisor
Ezra Levant
Ezra Isaac Levant (born February 20, 1972) is a Canadian conservative media personality, political activist, writer, broadcaster, and former lawyer. Levant is the founder and former publisher of the conservative magazine, The'' Western Standard''. ...
, Anders was part of an up-and-coming group of young Reformers which pundits dubbed the "Snack Pack" due to their relative youth - all aged under 30; and girth.
37th Parliament (2001–2004)
On June 18, 2001 he became associate critic for National Defence, until appointed critic for Civil Preparedness from Jan 22, 2004 until the 2004 election.
Over time Anders has served in several leadership roles on parliamentary committees. In the
37th Canadian Parliament he was the vice-chair of the Subcommittee on National Security of the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
Anders was the sole parliamentarian to vote against making
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
an honorary citizen of Canada in 2001, which prevented the act from passing unanimously. He defended his actions by stating that Mandela was a communist and a terrorist, causing widespread criticism. As a result, during the next two federal elections, Anders was the target of a mostly unsuccessful non-partisan "Vote Out Rob Anders" campaign in his riding, but his popular vote percentage increased in every federal election since he was first elected in the
1997 Canadian federal election
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
.
Anders was a supporter of Stephen Harper's successful 2002 bid for the leadership of 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 u ...
, providing significant assistance with the campaign's phone-banking.
38th Parliament (2004–2005)
In the next parliament Anders became the co-chair of the Scrutiny of Regulations Committee.
In December 2005, Anders used public funds to send pamphlets to residents in
Richmond, British Columbia
Richmond is a coastal city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough), between the two estuarine distributaries of the Fraser River. Encompassing the ad ...
, a constituency far removed from his own. The leaflets caused bewilderment for including a survey question about "homosexual sex marriage" in a flyer otherwise addressing crime and crystal meth abuse.
39th Parliament (2006–2008)
In the
39th Canadian Parliament
The 39th Canadian Parliament was in session from April 3, 2006 until September 7, 2008. The membership was set by the 2006 federal election on January 23, 2006, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections. The Parliament w ...
, after the Conservatives came to power, he was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
40th Parliament (2008–2011)
In the
40th Canadian Parliament he had three different committee leadership jobs: vice-chair of the Government Operations and Estimates Committee, vice-chair of Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates and co-chair of Library of Parliament Committee.
Anders has been a consistent critic of the human rights record of the People's Republic of China. He has described the PRC as "the worst human-rights abuser in the world," and compared the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He argued that "China is the wrong choice to host the Games... I absolutely 100% think it compares to the Berlin Olympics in 1936." Anders highlights that the fact that Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to participate in the Olympics is comparable with Adolf Hitler's issue with Jewish participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympics." Anders has also said that no Canadian politician should attend the games, nor should any Canadian athletes be used as "propaganda tools." His comments were criticized by local Chinese trade association as well as fellow Calgary Tory MP
Deepak Obhrai
Deepak Obhrai (July 5, 1950 – August 2, 2019) was a Tanzania-born Canadian politician, representing the riding of Calgary East (until 2015) and Forest Lawn (from 2015) for the Reform Party of Canada and then the Conservative Party of Canada ...
, who disclaimed Anders "was speaking as an individual and his comments are not reflective of government policy."
In February 2010, nineteen members of Anders' Calgary West riding association resigned ''en masse'', citing interference from the Conservative Party. The 32 member board had been planning to ask Conservative Party members at the riding's upcoming annual general meeting whether they wanted to hold a nomination contest. The party's national council intervened, saying it had already declared Anders as the candidate for the next federal election, and threatened to take control of the annual general meeting of the constituency association. The resignations brought the total number of board members who had resigned over the course of one year to twenty-four.
In 2010, in a card supporting Canadian troops, Anders wrote: "When in doubt, pull the trigger".
41st Parliament (2011–2015)
After the 2011 Canadian election, Anders served as a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Industry, Science and Technology Committee and the Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.
He was removed from his position on Veterans Affairs, partly based on his tendency to fall asleep during meetings. He was reassigned to the House–Senate Standing Joint Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations. In 2011 Anders began to lobby for the government to stop funding the CBC.
Anders' decision to become involved in the newly formed
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 ...
of Alberta has generated controversy, as the Wildrose Alliance Party had hoped to defeat the ruling
Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (often referred to colloquially as Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta) was a provincial centre-right party in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta that e ...
in the province's
2012 election. Ron Liepert, Alberta's Minister of Energy, accused Anders of campaigning against him.
In March 2012, Anders was removed from the Veterans Affairs Committee following controversial comments in response to arriving late, texting, and falling asleep at a committee meeting (including calling his accusers
NDP
NDP may stand for:
Computing
* Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol
* Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP
* Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language
Government
* National ...
"hacks", and claiming that they praise
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
).
In July 2012, Anders opposed his own party and criticized Treasury Board President
Tony Clement
Tony Peter Clement (born January 27, 1961) is a Canadian former federal politician and former Member of Parliament for Parry Sound—Muskoka in Ontario. Before entering federal politics, Clement served as an Ontario cabinet minister, including ...
for funding a visitors' centre honouring to
Norman Bethune
Henry Norman Bethune (; March 4, 1890 – November 12, 1939; zh, t=亨利·諾爾曼·白求恩, p=Hēnglì Nuò'ěrmàn Báiqiú'ēn) was a Canadian thoracic surgeon, early advocate of socialized medicine, and member of the Communist Party ...
, a Canadian physician who died while performing emergency medicine for the
Chinese resistance against the
Japanese occupation of China
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific The ...
. According to Anders, "You don't need taxpayer money to go ahead and memorialize somebody who was a fan of the biggest killer in human history
Mao_Zedong">/nowiki>Mao_Zedong">/nowiki>Mao_Zedong">Mao_Zedong.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Mao_Zedong">/nowiki>Mao_Zedong/nowiki>",_referring_to_Bethune's_communism.html" "title="Mao_Zedong.html" ;"title="Mao_Zedong.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Mao Zedong">/nowiki>Mao Zedong">Mao_Zedong.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Mao Zedong">/nowiki>Mao Zedong/nowiki>", referring to Bethune's communism">communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
ideals although Bethune had died ten years before Mao took power.
In September and October 2012, fellow Conservative Party members disassociated themselves from Anders' belief that New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair "hastened the death" of former NDP leader Jack Layton by encouraging an election while being in questionable health.
In October 2012, Anders attracted some controversy by calling Bill C279, a private member's bill that would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and hate crime section of the Criminal Code to include "gender identity" and "gender expression" as grounds for discrimination, a "bathroom bill".
On December 6, 2013, Anders spoke out after the death of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
, saying "If you are looking for another perspective you may be interested in the obituary that David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz (born January 10, 1939) is an American conservative writer. He is a founder and president of the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center's website ''FrontPage Magazine''; and director of Disco ...
wrote for the Freedom Center".
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
has indicated his support of Anders, stating that "Rob is a true reformer and a true conservative. He has been a faithful supporter of mine and I am grateful for his work."
Nomination challenges
Before the nomination race he ultimately lost, Anders defeated several high-profile challengers for the local Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
nomination.
In 1997, despite his relative youthfulness, Anders was already a veteran political organizer, and was able to win a hotly contested nomination in one of the safest Reform ridings in Canada.
In 2000 he defeated MLA Jocelyn Burgener for 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 u ...
nomination.
''CTV News'', January 4, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2014. Before the 2004 federal election Anders was challenged by future Alberta Premier Allison Redford
Alison Merrilla Redford (born March 7, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. She was the 14th premier of Alberta, having served in this capacity from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Redford was born in Kitimat, British Columbia ...
. Redford's campaign was run by Ron Liepert
Ronald Liepert (born October 8, 1949) is a Canadian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament for Calgary Signal Hill in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Cabinet of Alberta as Minister of Finance, Energy, Heal ...
, who would later challenge Anders for the new Calgary Signal Hill
Calgary Signal Hill is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015.
Calgary Signal Hill was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was leg ...
constituency.
In 2007 Anders was re-nominated by the Conservative party without a challenger. This led to a court challenge, which initially rescinded the decision and called for a new nomination. This decision was overturned on appeal, and Anders was the candidate in the 2008 Canadian Federal Election.
In 2010 Anders was challenged again, but successfully defeated Donna Kennedy-Glans, who was elected an MLA in 2012.
Ahead of the 42nd general election, Anders ran for the Conservative nomination in Calgary Signal Hill
Calgary Signal Hill is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015.
Calgary Signal Hill was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was leg ...
, essentially a reconfigured version of Calgary West. However, he was defeated by former provincial cabinet minister Ron Liepert
Ronald Liepert (born October 8, 1949) is a Canadian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament for Calgary Signal Hill in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Cabinet of Alberta as Minister of Finance, Energy, Heal ...
. Anders had characterized the nomination contest as a fight for the party's soul. He was rebuked by the party for making misleading phone calls that left the impression they were coming from Liepert's campaign.
After losing the nomination race for Calgary Signal Hill, Anders decided to contest for the nomination in the new electoral district of Bow River
The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These w ...
, a mostly rural riding east of Calgary. Anders moved into the district in order to present himself as a resident of the district but he faced a challenge from the mayor of the City of Brooks, Martin Shields
Martin Shields (born April 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Bow River in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election.
Prior to his election, he served as the mayor of Bro ...
; former Rocky View County reeve Rolly Ashdown; and an economics professor from Calgary's Mount Royal University
Gerard Lucyshyn
All have been long-time residents of the district.
On September 20, 2014, Anders lost the nomination for Bow River to Shields. His entry in the race for Bow River caused resentment amongst the other candidates who felt that Anders had parachuted into the riding after losing the nomination race in Calgary Signal Hill.
Post-parliamentary life
Anders serves as president of Firearms Institute for Rational Education. In 2016, he traveled to Arizona to support the campaign to elect Donald Trump as President of the United States.
Provincial politics
At the provincial level, Anders is a member of the Wildrose 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 ...
in Alberta and publicly renewed his membership in the wake of the December 2014 defection of 9 of its MLAs, including party leader 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 ...
, to the governing Progressive Conservatives. Anders expressed interest in running in the Wildrose party's leadership election to choose a successor to Smith after she crossed the floor to join the ruling Progressive Conservatives, however, on January 23, 2015, the Wildrose executive announced that Anders was not qualified to run as he did not meet the minimum 6 month membership requirement and that the party would not be issuing a waiver to permit him to be a candidate.
Alleged tax evasion
In 2020, the ''National Post'' reported that Anders had been charged by the Canada Revenue Agency
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Canadian federal government, and most provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects taxes, administers tax law and policy, and delivers benefit programs and tax credit ...
for tax evasion. Most of the five charges that were laid dated to the period of 1997 to 2015, when he was a member of parliament. Anders was scheduled to face trial on tax evasion charges on October 25, 2021. On June 6th, 2022 the CBC reported that all tax evasion charges against Rob Anders had been stayed.
Electoral record
Anders has faced high-profile opponents. In 1997 he defeated Dave Bronconnier
David Thomas Bronconnier (born October 7, 1962) is a Canadian politician who served as the 35th Mayor of Calgary, Alberta.
Personal life
A fourth-generation Calgarian (his great grandmother was born in Calgary in 1895), he grew up in the south ...
, who later became the Mayor of 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 ...
. In 2000 he defeated Jim Silye
Jim Silye (born April 28, 1946) is a Canadian politician, businessman, and former professional football player for the Canadian Football League.
Born in Vöcklabruck, Austria, he emigrated to Arnprior, Ontario in 1951. He received a Bachelor ...
, a former 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 ...
MP who was now running for the PCs.
Activism
Anders has devoted his time to a variety of conservative causes. Some of these include lobby groups and think tanks such as Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is a fundamentalist Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations ...
, the Canada Family Action Coalition, and to several causes opposing the Government of China's policies regarding Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
and Falun Gong
Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement.Junker, Andrew. 2019. ''Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora'', pp. 23–24, 33, 119 ...
. Before being elected he worked for the Republican Party on the 1994 Senate campaign of Jim Inhofe
James Mountain Inhofe ( ; born November 17, 1934) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Oklahoma, a seat he was first elected to in 1994. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the U.S. Senate Committ ...
in Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
as a professional heckler, which earned him the label of "a foreign political saboteur" from CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
.
References
External links
Official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anders, Rob
1972 births
Canadian Alliance MPs
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Living people
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta
Politicians from Calgary
Politicians from Winnipeg
Reform Party of Canada MPs
University of Calgary alumni
20th-century Canadian politicians
21st-century Canadian politicians