Candice Bergen

Candice Marie Bergen (born September 28, 1964) is a Canadian politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Portage—Lisgar in Manitoba from 2008 to 2023.

She served as the interim leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of the Opposition from February 2, 2022 to September 10, 2022.

Bergen was born on September 28, 1964, in Morden, Manitoba, to a family with Mennonite roots and attended a Pentecostal church.

She was the youngest of eight siblings.

Her father sold car parts and her mother was a cleaner in a hospital.

After high school, Bergen moved to Winnipeg and British Columbia, but returned home to Morden to raise her children and worked to help support her husband through university.

Bergen became involved in politics because of frustration with the Canadian federal government, including what she perceived as wasteful spending.

She began volunteering for the Canadian Alliance's local riding association.

In 2004, she was the Manitoba campaign manager for Stephen Harper's leadership bid for the Conservative Party of Canada.

On October 14, 2008, Bergen, under her then-married name Candice Hoeppner, was elected to represent Portage—Lisgar in the 2008 Canadian federal election.

On November 19, 2008, Bergen introduced the motion in the House of Commons to accept the speech from the throne (the traditional speech in which the governor general outlines the government's agenda at the start of a new session of Parliament).

On May 15, 2009, Bergen introduced bill C-391, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, which would have repealed the long-gun registry.

On November 4, 2009, bill C-391 passed second reading in the House of Commons by a vote of 164 to 137.

On September 22, 2010, a Liberal motion to kill debate on bill C-391 was passed 153–151, after six NDP MPs who backed Bergen's bill changed their votes, along with several Liberal MPs, enough to ensure the passage of the motion, keeping the registry alive.

In fall 2011, Bergen was given the opportunity to chair a panel of MPs (one from each recognized party) for the selection of Supreme Court judges.

Bergen was also a member of the legislative committee studying the controversial Bill C-18, an omnibus bill that would purportedly give marketing freedom to western grain farmers.

Some farmers claim that the bill has had negative effects on the grain farmers it claimed to benefit.

Previously, Bergen served as chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

She was the vice-chair of the Standing Committee for the Status of Women and sat on the Standing Committee for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

Additionally, she has been a member of the Liaison Committee as well as the Panel of Legislative Committee Chairs.

Bergen was involved in several special parliamentary groups.

She was on the executive on the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group.

She is also the former chair of the Canada-Australia-New Zealand Parliamentary Friendship Group, in addition to sitting on a number of other parliamentary groups.

On May 2, 2011, at the 41st Canadian general election, Bergen was returned as Member of Parliament for Portage—Lisgar with 76.0 per cent of the vote.

On May 25, 2011, Bergen was appointed as the parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety.

In her role as parliamentary secretary, Bergen had the opportunity to work alongside the Minister of Public Safety on bill C-19, Ending the Long Gun Registry Act which became law on April 5, 2012.

On July 15, 2013, Bergen was appointed Minister of State for Social Development.

After Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative leader after the party became the Official Opposition after the 2015 election, Bergen, who was re-elected, announced that she would run for the interim leadership.

Rona Ambrose was chosen instead.

In opposition, she served as the Official Opposition critic for Natural Resources from November 20, 2015, to September 15, 2016.

Bergen was minister of State for Social Development in the Harper government and Opposition House Leader under Rona Ambrose and Andrew Scheer from 2016 until 2020.

Bergen was appointed by Interim Conservative leader, Rona Ambrose as Opposition House Leader on September 15, 2016, replacing Andrew Scheer.

In 2018, Bergen criticized Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government during the Question Period after not ordering law enforcement to arrest Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi after admitting to be a member of the Islamic State group.

She also called on Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to reveal whether the government knows where he is or not, but Goodale stated that it was the "opposition of keeping Canadians safe".

She was re-elected in the 2019 federal election.

She served as deputy leader of the Conservative Party and deputy leader of the Opposition under Erin O'Toole from September 2020 to February 2022.

On September 6, 2022, she announced she would not be standing at the next federal election, and resigned her seat on February 28, 2023.

The by-election to replace her in parliament was held on June 19, 2023.

She was succeeded by her former campaign manager Branden Leslie.

She considered running in the 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election to succeed Andrew Scheer, but decided not to because of her lack of fluency in French.