Derek Zeisman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be updated.
Parts of this article or section have been identified as no longer being up to date.
Please update the article to reflect recent events, and remove this template when finished.

Derek Zeisman was the nominal candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding of BC Southern Interior in the 2006 federal election in Canada.

Zeisman holds Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Carleton University and a Master's of Public Administration from Queen's University.

He owns a small communications business and worked as an assistant to incumbent Member of Parliament Jim Gouk after Gouk's election in 2004. He worked as a foreign service officer with the Canadian Diplomatic Corps and was stationed at the Canadian Embassy in Algeria for two years. He also worked as a trade commissioner at Industry Canada’s International Trade Centre.

On December 20, 2005, Zeisman was involved in a two-vehicle collision that left him hospitalized with a broken femur, fractured pelvis, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. At the time, the road conditions were harsh. Months later, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation was begun into whether or not charges should be laid against Mr Zeisman for unsafe driving in the conditions. Zeisman has a history of speeding.

The driver of the other vehicle, a single mother who worked at the hospital where Zeisman was rehabilitated, has been unable to return to work since the crash. Zeisman caused an uproar when he suggested that the accident had been good for his campaign.

On June 12, 2006, Zeisman was officially charged with one count of reckless driving in his December 20, 2005 crash.

On January 11, 2006, a trial for Zeisman was set for February 2006 in connection with another alleged crime. In July 2004, Zeisman was crossing into British Columbia from the United States, when the Canada Border Services Agency charged him with attempting to smuggle in a Mercedes-Benz vehicle and 112 containers of alcohol. On January 12, 2006, Conservative leader Stephen Harper announced that since it was too late to withdraw candidates from the ballot, should Zeisman win, he would not be allowed to sit in the Conservative caucus until and if he cleared his name. In the 2006 election, he came in a very distant third behind winner Alex Atamanenko, the candidate of the New Democratic Party who only narrowly lost the riding in the 2004 election to Jim Gouk. He also finished behind second-place candidate Bill Profili of the Liberal Party of Canada. Zeisman's trial on the smuggling charges has been postponed until August 14, 2006.