Chris Lloyd, Papineau Conservative, was asked to resign
Former Montreal candidate says he received resignation papers after CBC revelations about his campaign
Chris Lloyd says he's surprised he lasted as long as he did as a Conservative candidate, given that he didn't go to great lengths to hide the fact that his campaign was part of an art project.
Lloyd resigned as the Conservative candidate for Montreal's Papineau riding after a CBC News investigation revealed his campaign and party involvement in Montreal were part of a decade-long art project.
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During an interview with CBC Radio's Information Morning Saint John, Lloyd talked about meeting with Conservative Party executives and attending the 2011 Conservative convention.
"I gave them a link to the 'Dear PM' blog and I told them about my letter-writing project, which I think maybe raised some eyebrows, but I think they didn't go quite as deeply as they could have," he said.
Lloyd has been writing a letter to the prime minister nearly every day since 2001. His topics run from the mundane to more critical.
I really wanted to see if I could push the Conservative message.- Chris Lloyd
The artist said it wasn't his intention to deceive his supporters, or add cynicism to the democratic process.
"I have to admit, I think our democratic process is an incredibly cynical, broken, kind of twisted affair. We generally don't elect independent candidates," he said. "I really wanted to see if I could push the Conservative message, run under it and actually make a difference."
Lloyd hoped to 'weather media storm'
In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, published late Tuesday night on his blog "Dear PM," Lloyd described the fallout after the news surfaced.
"I met [redacted] at a café where I tried … to convince him we could weather this media storm together, but to no avail," he wrote.
"He presented me with the resignation papers and I signed."
I believe making art is an inherently political act - sometimes more political than we realize.- Chris Lloyd
Lloyd, a native of Saint John, was acclaimed in February as the candidate to run against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in the Montreal riding of Papineau in this year's federal election.
At an art discussion in Fredericton in March, Lloyd said he was a member of all political parties at one point, as well as a member of Leadnow, a group bent on preventing a Conservative majority.
It was at that same art discussion that Lloyd said he's been writing about his plan to become a political candidate for years.
"I'm going to like mess with your party, I'm totally, like, going to wait till the writ is dropped, then it's going to be party time," he said.
In his latest blog post, Lloyd said he tried to explain the "messing with" quotation to the person he met with, but didn't have any luck.
Artist has no regrets
The artist added that he does not regret anything, doesn't consider his political career to be over, and thinks there are still opportunities for some interesting marriages of art and politics, leading up to the election.
On his blog, Lloyd said he hopes the experience will provide "fresh insights into the nature of, and the relationship between, the personal and the political in this, the age of social media."
He wrote that he believes making art is "an inherently political act — sometimes more political than we realize."