[Drizzt]

Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada)

July 6, 2003 Sunday Early Edition

SECTION: City & Region; Pg. E2

LENGTH: 315 words

HEADLINE: Pair stands behind shootout fundraiser

SOURCE: Calgary Herald

BYLINE: Wendy-Anne Thompson

BODY:
A failed Tory leadership hopeful and an Alliance MP are standing behind a controversial shoot-out fundraiser despite criticism against the event.

"All it is, is that we're trying to have a little bit of fun, a little bit of relaxation by doing something different," said Craig Chandler, who had campaigned in the recent federal Progressive Conservative leadership race but pulled out just prior to voting. "Saying we're promoting violence or that we're being red necked is absolutely ridiculous."

Chandler will host a Steak and Shoot fundraiser at the Shooting Edge Firing Range next month.

The event includes 9mm or equivalent ammo and semi-automatic weapons, an Alberta beef dinner and a $100 day pass. A dinner-only ticket is $50. The shooting targets are Liberal party logos.

Chandler hopes to sell at least 200 tickets and said the money will help rid him of his $10,000 campaign debt.

Calgary West Alliance MP Rob Anders also plans on hosting a similar event later in the fall.

Earlier this week, Liberal MP John Harvard attacked the event, calling it "tacky" and "distasteful."

"Can you imagine if some other political party had a fundraiser like that and people were shooting at Stephen Harper or Stockwell Day or Preston Manning? I think they would find that repulsive," Harvard said.

"That kind of behaviour appeals, I guess, to a very narrow, thin band of political people but I think the overwhelming majority of Canadians would find it distasteful."

But on Saturday, Wild Rose Alliance MP Myron Thompson defended the Steak and Shoot.

He said Harvard's reaction is "typical knee-jerk, anti-gun, anti-western Liberalism at its worst.

"I don't suppose I'm all that surprised to see that kind of reaction from Harvard. His party just turned tens of thousands of law-abiding gun owners into criminals on Canada Day."

[WonderNine]

"I don't suppose I'm all that surprised to see that kind of reaction from Harvard. His party just turned tens of thousands of law-abiding gun owners into criminals on Canada Day."

HAR HAR HAR!:cool:

[Drizzt]

Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada)

July 10, 2003 Thursday Final Edition

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A8

LENGTH: 458 words

HEADLINE: Shoot this idea before it spreads

SOURCE: The Guelph Mercury

BODY:
About the most charitable spin that can be put on failed federal Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Craig Chandler's idea for a fundraising event aimed at getting him out of hock is that he means no real harm by it.

The worst is that it's an incitement to violence. But let's back up and review Chandler's motives for inviting guests at his proposed Aug. 23 shindig to take destructive shots -- with real guns firing real bullets -- at a Liberal Party logo.

Chandler, a part-time Rockwood resident, was a candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party this year. Peter MacKay won that contest June 1, and Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice was second after David Orchard of Saskatchewan threw his support behind MacKay in an controversial deal in which MacKay agreed not to seek a union with the Canadian Alliance. And Chandler? He withdrew his candidacy the evening before balloting started, throwing whatever support he had behind the Prentice campaign. But in his foreshortened run at the top Tory job, Chandler spent $10,000 more than his campaign fund contained. Thus the perceived need for an attention-grabbing fundraising gimmick.

The idea he hatched is what he is calling a "steak and shoot". For $100 a pop, Chandler will offer participants a steak dinner featuring Alberta beef and a real shot at the Liberal logo.

All of this will take place in Chandler's alternate home in Calgary, and the shooting will safely take place within the precincts of a shooting range. Invitees at this fun event will include both Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance supporters.

It'll all be legal. But stupid. For surely the aim of any self-respecting Alliance or Tory party member cannot be the destruction of the Liberal Party or even its cherished symbols. Surely, the quest is to get the brightest, the best and the most democratically sensitive government possible elected in Canada.

Yes, partisan rivalries are a means by which this quest is pursued (though figuring out how this works under present conditions continues to baffle a significant number of citizens). But when it approaches the point of hatching a plan to encourage vandalism of a rival party's property (and the Liberal logo does belong to the Liberal Party) it is time to get a grip.

There is no clear indication who, if anybody, on Chandler's guest list will show up. Chandler still thinks they will come out in droves because "guns are to Albertans what wine is to the French". But it is also probable that most other Alberta politicians are not quite so parochial as to suppose that firing off guns and otherwise whooping it up by vandalizing a Liberal logo won't send the wrong message to the rest of the nation.