The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ran a full slate of candidates in the 1997 federal election, and won 20 seats out of 301 to emerge as the fifth largest party in the House of Commons of Canada. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.
Quebec
Claude Boulard (Brome—Missisquoi) Claude Boulard (died 7 June 2003) was a radio and television personality. He was the founder of the radio station CIMO-FM in Magog, which he sold to Radiomutuel in 1986. He also helped promote JoJo Savard, a television astrologist who attracted national media notoriety in the 1990s. Boulard's links to Savard became an issue in the 1997 campaign; Pierre Foglia of La Presse described him as a "king of fools" who should not have been allowed to run for a credible political party. Boulard defended his work as a professional host and said there was nothing illegal about Savard's business. He received 12,770 votes (28.09%), finishing second against Liberal Party incumbent Denis Paradis.
He died at age sixty-eight in 2003, after a battle with fibrosis and lung cancer.
Anie Perrault (Joliette) Anie Perrault is a lawyer, politician, and communications specialist in Quebec. She practised law in Montreal from 1992 to 1995; was national director of communications and public affairs for Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) from 1999 to 2001; and was vice president, communications for Genome Canada from 2001 to 2004. She became president of Communications Anie Perrault in 2006.
Perrault was president of the Young Progressive Conservatives of Quebec in the early 1990s. She was a special advisor to Jean Charest on three occasions between 1989 and 1997, including during the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. She later worked as a special advisor to Peter MacKay (1997) and press attachée and senior advisor to Joe Clark (1998–99). Perrault herself ran for the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative candidate in 1997 and placed a credible second against the Bloc Québécois incumbent in Joliette.
She moved to Bromont in 2003 and was elected to a seat on the city's council in 2009.
Yves Schelling (Richelieu) Yves Schelling was a foreman in Bécancour. In the early 1990s, he served as an assistant to Liberal Member of the National Assembly Maurice Richard. He received 6,827 votes (14.16%), finishing third against Bloc Québécois incumbent Louis Plamondon.
Ontario
Gregg Crealock (St. Catharines)
Crealock graduated from the Sheridan College high school equivalency program in 1974. He worked as assistant manager of markets for the Royal Bank of Canada from 1982 to 1985, and was a senior manager with the Bank of Nova Scotia from 1985 to 1988. In 1986, he opened the family-owned Plain & Fancy Restaurant. Crealock was chair of the St. Catharines Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s.
Crealock received 6,503 votes (13.41%), finishing third against Liberal candidate Walt Lastewka. He was 40 years old in 1997 (Globe and Mail, 16 April 1997).
Brian McCutcheon (Scarborough Southwest)
McCutcheon was born on 25 May 1967. He received a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Waterloo in 1991, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1995. He has worked as an engineer and computer consultant, and was a lawyer in Toronto at the time of the election. If elected, he promised to work to establish a parental responsibility act (Toronto Star, 30 May 1997).
McCutcheon received 5,294 votes (13.67%), finishing third against Liberal incumbent Tom Wappel.
Angie Tomasic (Stoney Creek)
Tomasic was born in northern Greece on 15 September 1961, and moved to Hamilton with her family when she was two years old (Hamilton Spectator, 18 May 1996). She began working as a bank manager in 1984, and had become a senior assistant branch manager with Royal Bank by the mid-1990s. She was also a part-time student at McMaster University in this period, working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hamilton Spectator, 27 May 1995).
Tomasic unsuccessfully campaigned for Hamilton's public school board in 1988 and 1991, and ran for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the 1995 provincial election. She endorsed welfare reform and the abolition of affirmative action programs (Hamilton Spectator, 19 May 1995) in the 1995 provincial election, and was credited with running a stronger campaign than expected. She finished a credible third in Hamilton Centre, where the Progressive Conservatives have not historically polled well.