A Progressive Conservative MLA hopeful who wrote earlier this year of infiltrating the nominations of his “arrogant” party is having his recently won nomination reviewed by Premier Ed Stelmach and Conservative brass because of statements he’s made in the past — including disparaging comments about gay people.

Craig Chandler overwhelmingly won the nomination for the riding of Calgary-Egmont November 17, taking almost double the votes of his closest opponent. However, Chandler’s nomination in the southeast riding has created a rift in the Conservative party between those who want him to run and others who see the outspoken radio host as a serious liability to the party’s already volatile fortunes in Calgary. (Chandler himself is currently mute on the controversy. “I’m not commenting on anything at all to anyone,” he told Fast Forward.)

Conservative staff met with Chandler on November 21 regarding a Canadian Human Rights Commission settlement reached between Chandler and Edmontonian Rob Wells in March. Wells had filed several complaints with the commission about questionable material posted on websites controlled by Chandler, including archived broadcasts of his radio show, Freedom Radio Network. According to the CHRC settlement, in a February 2005 episode Chandler said, “God sees murder as equal to homosexuality,” and wondered how someone could know if “these genetic misinterpretations” weren’t from “the devil himself.”

In a July 2005 show, he compared the way gay activists treat Christians to the way Nazis treated Jews before the Second World War, according to the settlement. “The Nazis did it with the Jews — they had those stars…. So why don’t we just make all Christians have yellow little crosses?” The offending shows have been removed from the radio program’s website, and Chandler has apologized to Wells for making the comments.

As part of the settlement, Chandler agreed its appendices — which contain the above quotes — would not be published on websites he controls. However, the appendices were on the Freedom Radio Network site until November 21, more than eight months late, when Chandler had them removed after receiving a reminder from the commission.

Chandler’s well-publicized opinions on homosexuality have some Tories calling on Premier Ed Stelmach to reject his nomination. “Mr. Chandler is not an appropriate candidate,” says Ken Chapman, an Edmonton policy analyst and Conservative party member. “I think his beliefs and his actions have shown he is not the kind of character we want in a representative democracy that reflects the modern values of most Albertans.” Stelmach himself has said that he doesn’t “tolerate intolerance.”

However, the president of the Calgary-Egmont Conservative constituency association says he will resign “as a matter of principle” if Stelmach rejects Chandler’s candidacy. “I imagine several of the other [constituency] board members will, too,” says David Crutcher, adding the “autonomy of the constituency association needs to be respected.” Crutcher says Chandler is being unfairly maligned in media reports. “He is an honest and sincere person, and he says what he believes,” says Crutcher, who ran for the Alberta Alliance in Calgary-Egmont in 2004. “I don’t think Craig has ever gone out and said anything to deliberately hurt anybody.”

Jim Blake, the national chairman of Concerned Christians Canada — a group that had Chandler as its CEO until earlier this year — has called Stelmach’s review of Chandler’s candidacy “intolerance.” “This PC candidacy review seems like a witch hunt trying to weed out an outspoken evangelical Christian,” says Blake.

In addition to his comments about gays, Chandler has also said harsh words about his own party. On June 22, Chandler wrote on the Project Alberta message board that the party has “become arrogant.” “We need to take out the trash and clean house,” he wrote. In another post written the same day, he talked about infiltrating the party. “If real conservatives got the @$#& together and infiltrated nominations we could take the party back,” he wrote. “It is much easier to take the party back from within then [sic] start a new party that the public does not trust or recognize.”

Two months later in August, Chandler took heat for writing on the same website that newcomers to Alberta who don’t vote for the Conservatives should leave. “Many of the people coming here do not truly appreciate Alberta or even understand the history of this province or the relationship with the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party…. If you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns or leave,” he wrote, later editing the post to replace “Alberta Progressive Conservative Party” with “small-c conservatism.” (The post has been edited four times.)

Chapman and other conservatives are also concerned by a video on Chandler’s website that suggests he’d play by his own rules as an MLA. “You think in a caucus meeting, I’m going to roll over?” he says in the video. And later: “I won’t toe the party line. And any of you who think I will — well, you don’t know me too well.”

Chapman says allowing Chandler to run would be a disaster for the party in an election campaign. “The gentleman has shown a huge degree of intolerance for certain groups of people who have rights protected under our laws and our charter and reflect a different value set,” says Chapman. “I think he’d be a huge liability.”

Chandler’s fate will be decided at a Conservative meeting on December 1. Originally Chandler and Crutcher weren’t invited to the meeting, but Crutcher sent out a press release asking to be present. Days later, both Crutcher and Chandler were invited. Conservative executive director Jim Campbell would not comment on who else will be present at the meeting because it’s an “internal party matter.”