19 Facts About Steve Gilchrist

Steve Gilchrist was born on July 7,1954 and is a former politician in Ontario, Canada.

Steve Gilchrist was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003 and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris.

Steve Gilchrist's father, Gordon Gilchrist, was a Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada.

Active in the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party since 1970, Steve Gilchrist first ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election in the riding of Scarborough East, but placed third behind incumbent Liberal Ed Fulton and the winner, New Democrat Bob Frankford.

From 1990 to 1994, Steve Gilchrist hosted various cable television shows on Trillium Cable in Scarborough.

Steve Gilchrist was immediately elected chair of the Standing Committee on Resources Development and he was named a parliamentary assistant to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 1997.

Steve Gilchrist was re-elected in the 1999 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate Peter Vanderyagt by about 3,500 votes.

On June 17,1999, Steve Gilchrist was named Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing but stepped aside to defend himself from allegations by the development industry in October 1999 after he had announced his intention to ban all development on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Steve Gilchrist remained active on the file after his resignation until the passage of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act in 2001.

Steve Gilchrist was elected as Chair of the Standing Committee on General Government and, on April 25,2002, he was appointed as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy and Environment.

Steve Gilchrist lost his seat in the 2003 provincial election, falling to Liberal Mary Anne Chambers by almost 7,000 votes.

For over twenty years, Steve Gilchrist annually funded "Steve Gilchrist Science Scholarships" at the University of Toronto Scarborough and various local high schools.

Steve Gilchrist became the Vice-President of Canadian Hydrogen Energy Company, the world's largest manufacturer of hydrogen-based emissions reduction and fuel saving devices.

Steve Gilchrist developed a company which has worked with governments in Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Asia to raise awareness of biomass-to-energy power generation opportunities and clean water generation.

From 2001 to 2011, Steve Gilchrist served as a Director and then Vice-President of the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, a volunteer organization whose goal is to place conservation easements over private and publicly held land on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Since 2005, Steve Gilchrist has served as a director of the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians and, in August 2015, he was elected as the Chair of that organization.

Steve Gilchrist has been active in a wide range of media, including serving as the alternate host for Politically Speaking on Rogers Television in Durham Region, a frequent guest of TV shows such as the Michael Coren Show on CTS and a contributor of many newspaper articles dealing with environmental and energy topics.

In November 2021, Steve Gilchrist graduated with a Master of Environmental Science degree from University of Toronto Scarborough.

In March 2008, Steve Gilchrist announced that he was stepping down as the candidate in order to return his full attention to his alternative energy business interests, including a proposed waste-to-energy facility in Ghana and an advanced recycling technology for municipalities in Canada.