June 28, 2004 - Steven Fletcher - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Steven Fletcher becomes Canada’s first quadriplegic elected to House of Commons. Steven Fletcher was born on June 17, 1972 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where his father was working as an engineer. Fletcher followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an engineer, but at the age of 23, while working as a mining engineer in Manitoba, he suffered paralysis from his neck down when his car hit a moose while he was driving. A year later, while still coming to terms with his disability, Fletcher returned to the University of Manitoba to attain his MBA. There he discovered an interest in politics when he was elected president of the student union two years in a row. After graduating in 2001, Fletcher became president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba and was re-elected for another term two years later – the first quadriplegic and the youngest person to hold this post. In 2003, a Winnipeg riding nominated him for the federal Canadian Alliance Party, and after it became the Conservative Party, he was elected as the party’s candidate in March 2004. On June 28, 2004, Fletcher found himself running against Winnipeg’s popular former mayor, Glen Murray, for the Liberal Party’s Charleswood-St. James seat. Though Murray was tagged the party’s “star candidate,” Fletcher managed to win the seat, becoming the first quadriplegic elected to Canada’s House of Commons.

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