Riley Brandt

Craig Chandler, head of a right-wing political lobby group, hopes to raise $1 million for candidates running in the 2010 municipal election

First George W. Bush came to town, then Condoleezza Rice. Now a local political lobby group is bringing more provocative U.S. conservatives, including commentators Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, to Calgary to raise $1 million for candidates running in the next civic election.

The goal, says Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) executive director Craig Chandler, is to “get conservatives elected at city hall.” The first speaker in town is Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who’ll be speaking at a $420-a-plate dinner in September. Coulter, author of How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), is booked for a March event, and talk radio host Limbaugh is slated to come to town in September, when the 2010 campaign is in full swing.

The PGIB hopes to back about six aldermanic candidates. The group has endorsed and supported candidates before, but Chandler says one thing will be different this time: cash, and lots of it. “We’re hoping to have, by the time Rush Limbaugh’s done, $3 million in our war chest,” says Chandler. “And I think a third of that could help take back city hall in Calgary.”

Chandler believes “the left” currently dominates Calgary’s city council and says his group wants “good government” run by conservatives.

“We want more Ric McIvers,” he says, referring to his former boss who’s now alderman for Ward 12. (Chandler managed McIver’s aldermanic campaign when he was first elected in 2001.) “If PGIB can fund more people that end up like Ric McIver, we’ve done our job.”

The PGIB describes itself as “a small c conservative organization that lobbies for less government, lower taxes and political accountability.” But Naheed Nenshi of the Better Calgary Campaign dismisses the PGIB as a fringe group that’s “totally irrelevant” to city politics. “I give them absolutely no credibility,” says Nenshi, an instructor at Mount Royal College’s Bissett School of Business.

Nenshi scoffs at the group’s fundraising goals, describing them as “hugely unrealistic.” He also points out that past PGIB efforts to get people elected at city hall have been unsuccessful. “The only person they’ve ever got elected is McIver.”

McIver, who was PGIB’s municipal chairman before he was elected, is widely rumoured to be seeking the mayor’s job. McIver won’t confirm if he’s running for the top spot — “I have no announcements to make today” — and says he’s unaware of Chandler’s war chest. “I hear things, but I’m not involved,” says McIver, adding he’s “separated” from the PGIB’s activities. McIver stepped down from the group’s executive in 2001 and says he hasn’t been a member for several years.

Asked what he did when he worked for the PGIB, McIver replies: “You know what? It’s so long ago I just don’t remember.”

Chandler says that while he doesn’t work on McIver’s campaigns anymore, the PGIB is keen on backing the popular alderman if he runs for mayor. “If Ric runs, we’ll support him in any way he wishes,” says Chandler. “He would win in a heartbeat. Even against [Mayor Dave] Bronconnier.”

So far, the PGIB is revealing only one of its endorsees: former Chandler campaign manager Harley Shouldice, who plans to run against Ald. Druh Farrell in Ward 7. “I think she might be surprised by the work ethic that I’m going to employ,” says Shouldice, adding that he wants to knock on every door in the ward twice before the election.

When Farrell was told about the Coulter and Limbaugh fundraisers, she was thrilled. “Maybe it’s good that it’s exposed that these guys are as radical right as they are,” she says of Chandler’s group. Farrell says she takes election competition seriously, but isn’t too worried about the group’s plans. “Calgarians have always rejected slates historically. I think they will in this case as well.”

Chandler says he likely won’t run, explaining that he’s still recovering after Premier Ed Stelmach stripped him of the Calgary-Egmont Conservative nomination he won before the 2008 provincial election. “I don’t think elections are in the cards for me in the future,” he says.

As well, PGIB national president Steve Chapman, who ran in Ward 8 in 2007, hasn’t decided if he’ll run again. “I’m certainly keeping my options open at this point,” he says.

The PGIB’s lofty goals could run into a major hitch. The provincial government is currently looking at approving a new law regulating municipal campaign financing, and the law would cap individual municipal campaign donations at $5,000. “The provincial government is well aware that they need to get this done quickly,” says Nenshi.

If implemented, the law would limit the PGIB to giving $5,000 max to each candidate. Chandler says if that happens, his group will “adapt.” “We will not do anything that’s illegal,” he says. “We will follow the law to the T. But there’s always ways to do things, isn’t there?”