David Cameron Chatters (April 15, 1946 – January 25, 2016) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2006, representing the riding of Athabasca until the 2004 election, after which he represented Westlock—St. Paul. Born in

Westlock, Alberta Westlock is a town in central Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1913, the town is primarily an agricultural, business, and government administration centre serving communities and rural areas within surrounding Westlock County. Geography Westlock i ...

, Chatters, formerly a farmer and rancher, was first elected as a member of the

Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada (french: Parti réformiste du Canada) was a right-wing populist and conservative federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada-based prot ...

(1993–2000), which became the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed u ...

in 2000, which became the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

in 2003. For over 10 years, he was the Senior Opposition Critic for Natural Resources and was a Deputy Whip of the Official Opposition. He was the Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics, but health reasons made Chatters retire at the

2006 election The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidential ...

. In May 1996, he was suspended from the Reform Party caucus for asserting, in the wake of the Delwin Vriend case on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

human rights, that schools should have the right to fire openly gay teachers."Gay Rights Bill Passes"
''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'', May 13, 1996. Another caucus colleague who had made a similar comment, Bob Ringma, was suspended at the same time; a third caucus colleague, Jan Brown, was also suspended at the same time for publicly criticizing Chatters and Ringma. All three were readmitted to the Reform caucus by September of that year. He died at the age of 69 on January 25, 2016. He had

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of panc ...

Electoral record

References

External links

How'd They Vote?: David Chatters' voting history and quotes
* 1946 births 2016 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Reform Party of Canada MPs Canadian Alliance MPs Conservative Party of Canada MPs People from Westlock County 21st-century Canadian politicians Deaths from pancreatic cancer {{Alberta-politician-stub