- Jim Pankiw
Jim Pankiw (born
August 7 ,1966 ) is a Canadianpolitician and formerMember of Parliament .Pankiw served two terms in the
Canadian House of Commons , representingSaskatoon—Humboldt inSaskatchewan from1997 until2004 as a member of theReform Party of Canada , theCanadian Alliance , theDemocratic Representative Caucus and finally as an independent MP.Early life
Pankiw was raised by his father George in
Unity, Saskatchewan . His mother died when he was young. After training as achiropractor , Pankiw was first elected to Parliament in the 1997 federal election as a member of the Reform Party. He won a plurality of just 220 votes overDennis Gruending of theNew Democratic Party .Controversy
In
2000 , Pankiw wrote a letter to the president of theUniversity of Saskatchewan ,Peter MacKinnon , condemning the university'saffirmative action policies and comparing its supporters to those of theKu Klux Klan . The letter led to a heated debate between Pankiw and Saskatchewan Liberalcabinet ministerJack Hilson on the university campus. [http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/national/2000/01/28/pankiw000128.html]At the time of the 2000 election, Pankiw was a member of Reform's successor, the Canadian Alliance. He ran into opposition during his on-campus debate with the Liberal candidate, former MP
Morris Bodnar . Owing to strong support from the rural areas of the constituency, Pankiw won re-election with a plurality of 6,360 votes.Expulsion
By
2001 , Pankiw's relationship with much of the Alliancecaucus and especially the leader,Stockwell Day , was reported to be strained.Fact|date=February 2007 Pankiw eventually joined with a small group of MPs informally led byChuck Strahl and called for Day's resignation. As a result, Pankiw was suspended and eventually expelled from the Alliance caucus and party. After joining with other expellees to form the Democratic Representative Caucus, Pankiw sat with other DRC members in the Progressive Conservative-DRC coalition.The election of
Stephen Harper as leader of the Alliance resulted in the dissolution of the PC-DRC coalition and in most of the DRC members returning to the Alliance fold. Pankiw also applied for re-admission. However, by this time he was involved in another controversy, after an aboriginal lawyer alleged that an inebriated Pankiw had made lewd gestures to him in a Saskatoon bar, and challenged him to a fight.Fact|date=February 2007Pankiw was denied re-admission to the Alliance. He was also refused membership in the new
Conservative Party of Canada , and served the rest of his term as an independent MP.Mayoralty election
In
2003 , Pankiw ran against the unpopular incumbentJames Maddin for mayor of Saskatoon. Those opposed to him raised billboards that read "Racism-Free Zone — No Pankiw, Thank You". In response, Pankiw distributed flyers claiming that it was his opponents who were racist. The revelation that Pankiw had recently purchased a home outside the Saskatoon city limits also attracted criticism since his mayoral application said he resided in the Forest Grove area in northeast Saskatoon.Pankiw finished ahead of Maddin in third place, behind runner-up
Peter Zakreski .Don Atchison was elected mayor. Voter turnout exceeded 50 percent, a level almost unheard of in a Canadian municipal election.Fact|date=February 2007Reelection and return campaigns
Pankiw sought re-election in the 2004 federal election, against Conservative candidate
Brad Trost , LiberalPatrick Wolfe and New DemocratNettie Wiebe . He received 7,076 votes, achieving fourth place, 2,368 votes behind the winner, Trost.Pankiw was defeated again in the 2006 federal election in the
Battlefords-Lloydminster constituency by ConservativeGerry Ritz . Ritz has represented Battlefords-Lloydminster since the 1997 election, which he won after defeating Pankiw's father George in a heated contest for the Reform Party nomination.External links
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