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Famous Like Me > Actor > F > Stephen Fletcher

Profile of Stephen Fletcher on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Stephen Fletcher  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 24th August 1979
   
Place of Birth: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Steven John Fletcher, MP, B. Sc. (Engineering), MBA (born June 17, 1972) is a member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He won his seat in the Canadian federal election of 2004, running for the Conservative Party of Canada. He is the first quadriplegic parliamentarian in the House of Commons.

Fletcher was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where his father was working as an engineer. He was twice elected president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union, and pursued a policy of debt reduction while holding this position. His years in office were marked by controversy, with opponents charging him with trying to shut down the local student newspaper, the Manitoban, and having the campus Womyn's Centre illegally searched during an election campaign. In November 2001, he co-chaired the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's policy forum, "Solutions for the 21st Century". Before the 2004 election, he received a Masters Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Manitoba, from which he had previously received a degree in Engineering.

Fletcher was elected President of the PC Party of Manitoba in 2001, and was re-elected to the position in 2003. He obtained the Canadian Alliance nomination in Charleswood-St. James for the 2004 federal election, and was a strong supporter of the "unite the right" movement that ultimately brought together the federal PC Party and the Canadian Alliance as the Conservative Party of Canada. During the leadership election for the Conservative Party of Canada in 2004, Fletcher endorsed the candidacy of Stephen Harper.

Fletcher became a complete quadriplegic after hitting a moose with his vehicle while travelling to his geological engineering job in northern Manitoba in 1996. He is completely paralysed below the neck and requires 24 hour a day attendant care. He is the first Member of Parliament (MP) with a permanent disability in Canadian history. A running joke during his campaign was that he will have to be a front bench MP, as the backbenches are not wheelchair-accessible. In addition, he has created the need for a "stranger to the House" - a person who is not officially an MP or officer of Parliament - to be on the Commons floor during sessions; Fletcher's assistant must handle almost any task.

Fletcher's victory in the 2004 election was generally regarded as an upset, although polls taken before election day indicated that the race would be close. He defeated a popular former Mayor of Winnipeg, Glen Murray, who was running for the Liberal Party. Fletcher received 18,688 votes, against 17,954 for Murray.

Harper named Fletcher to the high-profile position of Senior Health Critic in his shadow cabinet in the official opposition.

On May 21, 2005, Fletcher apologized for language he used the week previously at a veterans' convention in Winnipeg. The remark in question was centred around the following quote: "The Japs were bastards" referring to Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Fletcher defended the general tone of his remark, noting that his grandfather witnessed the Japanese army commit wartime atrocities when he was taken as a prisoner of war after the fall of Singapore. "They used my grandfather's friend for bayonet practice", he told the Canadian Press. "They put my grandfather on a raft when he was ill to die. They shot people indiscriminately."

During his first year as health critic, he successfully lead the fight for compensation for people who were infected with Hepatitis C because of the Canadian Red Cross's failure to test for it. On April 19, 2005, the House of Commons supported Fletcher's Motion in the Commons Committee on Health to compensate all those infected by Hepatitis C through tainted blood. This is a major development in the decade long fight to get the pre-1986 and post-1990 Hepatitis C victims compensated.

On June 7, 2005, Fletcher also brought forward a supply day motion for full funding for the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control and to create funding for a National Strategy for Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Heart Disease. According to CTV, the Liberal government was going to vote against the motion, but faced a revolt by some Liberal backbench MPs. It is very rare that an opposition supply motion passes the Canadian parliament.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Stephen Fletcher