James K. Pankiw (born August 7, 1966) is a Canadian politician and former Member of Parliament. Pankiw served two terms in the House of Commons of Canada, representing Saskatoon—Humboldt in Saskatchewan from 1997 until 2004 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada, the Canadian Alliance, the Democratic Representative Caucus and finally as an independent MP. He is the founder and was the only leader of the Canada Party before its dissolution. Early life Pankiw was raised by his father, George, in Unity, Saskatchewan. His mother died when he was young. After training as a chiropractor, Pankiw was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1997 federal election as a member of the Reform Party. He won a plurality of 220 votes over runner-up Dennis Gruending of the New Democratic Party. Political career Controversy In 2000, Pankiw wrote a letter to the president of the University of Saskatchewan, Peter MacKinnon, condemning the university's affirmative action policies and comparing its supporters to those of the Ku Klux Klan. The letter led to a heated debate between Pankiw and Saskatchewan Liberal cabinet minister Jack Hillson on the university campus. At the time of the 2000 election, Pankiw was a member of Reform's successor, the Canadian Alliance. He ran into opposition during his on-campus debate with the Liberal candidate, former MP Morris Bodnar. Owing to strong support from the rural areas of the constituency, Pankiw won re-election with a plurality of 6,360 votes. Expulsion Pankiw joined with a small group of Alliance MPs informally led by Chuck Strahl that called for the resignation of party leader Stockwell Day. As a result, Pankiw was suspended and eventually expelled from the Alliance caucus and party. After joining with other expellees to form the Democratic Representative Caucus (DRC), Pankiw sat with other DRC members in the Progressive Conservative–DRC coalition. The election of Stephen Harper as leader of the Alliance resulted in the dissolution of the PC–DRC coalition and in most of the DRC members returning to the Alliance fold. Pankiw also applied for re-admission. However, by this time he was involved in another controversy, after an Aboriginal lawyer alleged that an inebriated Pankiw had made lewd gestures to him in a Saskatoon bar, and challenged him to a fight. For this reason, he was denied re-admission to the Alliance and became an independent MP. He was refused membership in the merged