Marc Alexander

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Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
47th	List	4	United Future

You may be looking for Marc R. Alexander, the Hawaiian priest.

Marc Alexander is a former New Zealand politician. He was a member of the United Future New Zealand party, and was elected to Parliament as a list MP. Before entering politics, he was a restaurateur in Christchurch, and also co-hosted a cooking program on local television. He was also a spokesperson for the Sensible Sentencing Trust, a group which lobbies for more severe penalties for criminals.He is now their Crime Prevention spokesperson.

He is perhaps most notable for his comments made after the 2005 election when he was not returned to Parliament, given that his list placing of fourth had not been sufficient to win re-election, for United Future had only polled one-third of its previous electoral support. He was highly critical of United Future, attacking what he sees to be excessive fundamentalist Christianity within the Party, among other problems. However, it should be noted that despite his professed atheism, Alexander's voting record was as socially conservative as his fundamentalist and evangelical fellow caucus members, apart from voting for the first reading of Peter Browns' Death With Dignity Bill in the 47th New Zealand Parliament, unlike the rest of his caucus colleagues.

He is also cynical of the prospects of the Government formed in the wake of that election. Reportedly, he has joined the New Zealand National Party in the wake of his election defeat. It is rumoured that he will be the National Party candidate in Wigram electorate in 2008. He has also recently had some involvement with Outdoor Recreation New Zealand, a small political party. This appears to break the rule of the National Party that bans dual membership of political parties. Alexander writes "Marc My Words", an occasional political column, for the online New Zealand news website Scoop. He has also authored a book on the NZ criminal justice system titled, Justice with Both Eyes Open, and is a strong advocate for the rights of crime victims.