Larry R. Heather (born 1953) is a

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost ...

from

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. In addition to running as an independent at all three levels of government, he has run as a

Christian Heritage Party of Canada The Christian Heritage Party of Canada (), also known as CHP Canada, is a Canadian federal political party that is part of the Christian right. Founded in 1987, it was the brainchild of two couples in British Columbia, namely Bill and Heathe ...

candidate in federal elections and an

Alberta Social Credit Party Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by C.H. Douglas, Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credi ...

candidate in provincial elections.

Personal life

Heather holds a Bachelor of Religious Education degree from

Briercrest Bible College Briercrest College and Seminary is a private evangelical post-secondary educational institution located in Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada. It comprises a college and a seminary, and operates the Briercrest Christian Academy. History Brierc ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in Religion from

Rocky Mountain College Rocky Mountain College (Rocky or RMC) is a private college in Billings, Montana, United States. It offers 50 liberal arts and professional majors in 24 undergraduate disciplines. As of 2013, the college had 1,069 enrolled students. RMC is affil ...

, and a Graduate Certificate of Christian Studies from

Regent College Regent College is an interdenominational evangelical Christian College of Christian studies, and an affiliated college of the University of British Columbia, located next to the university's campus in the University Endowment Lands west of Va ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia. A shipper/receiver and audio editor by profession, he was a member and performer in the

Canadian Badlands Passion Play Drumheller is a town on the Red Deer River in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located northeast of Calgary and south of Stettler. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often referred to as Dinosaur Valle ...

Society and a member of the Creation Science Association of Alberta. Heather previously hosted the radio program "Gospel Road" on CHRB in

High River High River is a town within the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately south of Calgary, at the junction of Alberta Highways 2 and 23. High River had a population of 14,324 in 2021. History The community takes ...

. He has lived in the electoral district Calgary-Heritage since 1963. He is a director with the William Aberhart Historical Foundation started by former Alberta Social Credit Speaker of the House, Arthur J. Dixon.

Political career

Heather is best known as an anti-

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

activist. He was briefly detained in 1985 for throwing

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

on abortion activist

Henry Morgentaler Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler (March 19, 1923 – May 29, 2013), was a Polish-born Canadian physician, and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War ...

, upon the latter's arrival in Calgary on a fundraising tour. He later protested against funding for the Calgary Birth Control Association in 1988, on the grounds that the organization provided abortion counselling. A few months after the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

struck down the nation's abortion law, he was quoted as saying, "a woman's womb is the most dangerous place to live in Canada". During a debate over a Calgary abortion clinic in 1991, he described Morgentaler as "a mass murderer who has murdered thousands of unborn babies". He has also been active in other socially conservative causes. During the 1989 municipal campaign, he described a local

gay bar A gay bar is a Bar (establishment), drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communi ...

as a "major public health threat" and claimed that

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...

s in washroom coin machines would result in a "flood of promiscuity". In 2005, he criticized Conservative Party leader

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

for supporting

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

rights for homosexual couples. Heather is a member of Cedars of Lebanon Reforestation (CoL), a group which believes that the growth of cedars in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

will signal the return of the Christian

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

. He spoke in defense of fellow CoL member Bruce Balfour in 2003, upon the latter's arrest by Lebanese authorities on charges of spying for Israel. The charges were not proven, and Balfour was released. As of 2007, he was the 2nd vice-president of communication of the

. Heather is a Conservative Baptist, and for many years was president of Christians Concerned For Life in Calgary. He has also written and performed gospel songs and is a playwright with three produced two-act dramas, including a Messianic Hanukkah Musical Tree of Light. One of his campaign documents in 2006 featured the headline, "Purge

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Activist Rulings!", accompanied by the image of a judge smashing his gavel on a husband-and-wife centerpiece. This was a reference to the recent legalization of

same-sex marriage in Canada Same-sex marriage was progressively introduced in several provinces and territories of Canada by court decisions beginning in 2003 before being legally recognized nationwide with the enactment of the ''Civil Marriage Act'' on July 20, 2005. On ...

. His campaign website also featured images of aborted

fetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Pren ...

es, which are juxtaposed with and likened to images of massacred children in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. In October 2007, he entered the campaign for the leadership of the

Social Credit Party of Alberta Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement wa ...

. He lost to Len Skowronski in a vote in Red Deer on November 3, 2007. He ran for public school trustee in Calgary in 2010 and documented that election on his post-election website. Protesting a change in membership standards in the Christian Heritage Party, he ran in his home riding of Calgary Southwest as an independent in 2011. He was a candidate for Mayor for the

2013 Calgary municipal election The 2013 Calgary municipal election was held Monday, October 21, 2013, to elect a mayor and 14 councillors to the city council, the seven trustees to the Calgary School District (each representing two of 14 wards), and five of the seven trustee ...

s and received 0.7 percent of the popular vote, coming in fifth out of nine candidates. He is a City Hall attender and frequent presenter from the public at both the committee level and Council public hearings. In the 2015 Alberta provincial election he was a Social Credit candidate in Calgary Elbow against Education Minister incumbent Gordon Dirks. In the 2015 federal election he ran in the electoral district of Calgary Heritage as an Independent candidate, his sixth time on the ballot against Stephen Harper. In the 2016 provincial by-election for Calgary-Greenway, he ran as an independent candidate. On November 7, 2016, Heather was banned from

Calgary City Hall Calgary City Hall (often called Old City Hall or Historic City Hall), is the seat of government for Calgary City Council, located in the city's Downtown Calgary, downtown core of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The historic building completed in 1911 ...

for a period of two years due to his behaviour while speaking to council regarding a rezoning issue. Heather opposed all applications for

secondary suite A secondary suite (also known as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), in-law apartment, granny flat, granny annex or garden suite) is a self-contained apartment, cottage, or small residential unit that is located on a property that has a separate ...

s, even in communities where he did not live, and was often off-topic while addressing issues. He refused to leave the podium after his 5 minutes of allotted time was up, the same that is granted all speakers, and remained at the podium until he was forced to leave by

Calgary Police Service Calgary Police Service (CPS; ) is the municipal police service of the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Alberta and third largest municipal force in Canada behind the Toronto Police Service and the Mo ...

officers. In 2017, Heather ran for Mayor of Calgary, however his results were lower than his previous attempt. His votes received dropped from 1% total vote down to 0.2%. On December 14, 2017, he also challenged

United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party ...

leader

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022, and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member o ...

in the

Calgary-Lougheed Calgary-Lougheed is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting. The district is primari ...

by-election and came last with 22 votes. In 2019 Heather ran again, this time provincially. He again finished in last place but managed to more to increase his votes from his previous effort by 32 and increase his percentage of the votes earned by 0.1%. Heather made a 2nd attempt at public office in 2019 but the results were the same as many of his previous loses. Last place and less than a half a percent of the public vote. In fact this was a step back from his last attempt at Federal office. There he had one of his better outings with 0.9% achieved. This latest lost saw him fall back 0.6% in the popular vote. He was a candidate in the 2023 Calgary Heritage federal by-election.

Electoral activity

The 1989 municipal results are taken from the ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'' of 17 October 1989, with 38 of 44 polls reporting. The 1992 municipal results are taken from the ''

'' of 20 October 1992, with 30 of 50 polls reporting. The 2017 municipal results are taken from the ''

Global News Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...

'' of 17 October 2017, with 266 of 266 polls reporting. The 2019 provincial results are taken from the Alberta Election site 59 of 61 polls reporting.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heather, Larry 1953 births Living people Alberta candidates for Member of Parliament Independent candidates in the 1984 Canadian federal election Independent candidates in the 1988 Canadian federal election People from Vulcan County Alberta Social Credit Party candidates in Alberta provincial elections Independent candidates in Alberta provincial elections Christian Heritage Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Canadian anti-abortion activists Regent College alumni Canadian radio hosts Anti-LGBTQ evangelical Christian activists Independent candidates in the 2015 Canadian federal election