Gary Ralph Schellenberger (born September 15, 1943 in Sebringville, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

) is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. He is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

, representing the riding

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of Perth—Wellington

Perth—Wellington

Perth—Wellington is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.It was created in 2003 from parts of Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey, Perth—Middlesex and Waterloo—Wellington ridings....

 for the Conservative Party

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

.

Schellenberger owned a painting and decorating store in Stratford before entering political life. He is a freemason, and an elder at Avonton Presbyterian

Presbyterian Church in Canada

The Presbyterian Church in Canada is the name of a Protestant Christian church, of presbyterian and reformed theology and polity, serving in Canada under this name since 1875, although the United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939...

 Church.

A councillor in the former Downie Township, Ontario

Perth South

Perth South was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1935. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867 which divided the County of Perth into two ridings...

 from 1988 to 2000, he first ran for parliament in the 1997 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1997

The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...

 as a Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 in Perth—Middlesex

Perth—Middlesex

Perth—Middlesex was an electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2003 and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2007....

. He lost to Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 John Richardson

John Richardson (politician)

BGen John Alexander "Jack" Richardson was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2002. His career was in education and defence...

 by over 8,000 votes; former Liberal MP-turned-Reformer

Reform Party of Canada

The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....

 Garnet Bloomfield

Garnet Bloomfield

Garnet McCallum Bloomfield was Liberal party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was a farmer by career....

 was third. Richardson, Schellenberger and Bloomfield all ran again in the 2000 election

Canadian federal election, 2000

The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....

, with the same overall result.

Richardson resigned his seat on November 10, 2002, suffering from a terminal illness. The subsequent by-election in 2003 garnered national attention, as both the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance

Canadian Alliance

The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...

 candidates attempted to displace the governing Liberals in the riding. Schellenberger, still running as a Progressive Conservative, defeated Liberal Brian Innes by 1,001 votes; despite several appearances from party leader Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

, the Alliance candidate, Marian Meinen, finished a distant third. Many interpreted this as a sign that the Alliance would be unable to win many Ontario seats in the next election. Shortly after his election, Schellenberger endorsed Peter MacKay

Peter MacKay

Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....

 for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.

Schellenberger was appointed Deputy Whip of the Progressive Conservative Party in September 2003. In early 2004, the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties merged as the Conservative Party of Canada. Schellenberger joined this new party, and supported Belinda Stronach

Belinda Stronach

Belinda Caroline Stronach, PC is a Canadian businessperson, philanthropist and former politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2008. Originally elected as a Conservative, she later crossed the floor to join the Liberals...

 in her unsuccessful campaign to become party leader.

He was re-elected under the new party's banner in the federal election of 2004

Canadian federal election, 2004

The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...

, defeating Innes by almost 4,000 votes.

In the 2006 federal election

Canadian federal election, 2006

The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...

, Schellenberger was re-elected by a margin of 9,703 votes, defeating the Liberal candidate, David Cunningham. In the 39th Parliament, Schellenberger was elected Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

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