Jake E. Hoeppner (February 1, 1936 – October 22, 2015) was a Canadian former politician. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2000, initially with the Reform Party and later as an independent Member of Parliament (MP). Early life Hoeppner was born on a Russian Mennonite family in Morden, Manitoba, did not finish high school, and worked as a farmer for thirty-five years. Between 1968 and 1984, he served on the Snowflake School Board, the Pembina Valley School Board, and the MCI Collegiate Board (Gretna). He was also a member of the Provisional Board of Keystone Agricultural Producers, District 2 and Southern Co-op Feeders Ltd. He first became a public figure in 1971, when he opposed the provincial government's crop-insurance scheme and received twice what he was initially promised in a hailstone-damage claim. Political career He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1993 federal election, defeating Liberal candidate Grant Johnson by 4,655 votes in Lisgar—Marquette. Hoeppner was the only Reform MP to be elected from a Manitoba riding in this election, and was one of only two party MPs elected east of Saskatchewan. Hoeppner launched a lawsuit against the Canadian Wheat Board in 1995, alleging that the board had charged insufficient buy-back prices to grain companies and had not properly distributed the money it received. The case was thrown out of court in 1998, and Hoeppner was ordered to pay the Wheat Board's legal fees. Hoeppner alleged that the Wheat Board withheld information from producers, though others have disputed his claims. In 1996, he spoke out against a federal measure that extended anti-discrimination provisions to homosexuals by claiming that homosexuality was the cause of civil war in Liberia and Zambia. These comments were widely ridiculed, and Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy referred to Hoeppner's observations as "probably the most ultimate example of stupidity I've seen (from) a Reform MP". He was re-elected in the 1997 election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Brian Pallister by 1,449 votes in the redistributed riding of Portage—Lisgar. Pallister had been a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, and was seen by some as the favourite to win the riding. After the election, Hoeppner promoted the idea of running provincial Reform Party candidates in Manitoba (there had previously been an organization called the Reform Party of Manitoba, but it was not affiliated with the federal party). One independent