Derek Sloan

Sloan announced his candidacy for the 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election on 22 January 2020. On January 27th, Sloan made national headlines after tweeting in response to fellow leadership candidate Richard Décarie his belief that being gay is a choice. During an interview on the CTV Power Panel Sloan went on to elaborate that he felt that the science of whether sexual orientation is a choice is unclear. Sloan's comments were criticized by his former election campaign manager, Eric Lorenzen, and fellow leadership candidate Marilyn Gladu.

On February 6th, 2020, members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte blockaded the Canadian National Railway north of Tyendinaga, in support the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs' opposition to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline within Sloan's riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington. Sloan spoke publicly about the blockade for the first time on February 18th, stating the Liberal government should have responded faster to the protests. Three days later Sloan stated that the protesters had not responded to his "request for dialogue" calling on the Ontario Provincial Police to enforce an injunction against them.

On April 23, 2020, Sloan again made national headlines after tweeting a video in which he asked whether Canada's Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam worked "for Canada or for China?" Sloan's comments singled out Theresa Tam, a Chinese Canadian, and were perceived as racist on social media; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called them intolerant, saying they had no place in Canada, and several fellow Conservative MPs denounced them as personal attacks. Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer initially declined to comment on Sloan's remarks, but stated that it was "inappropriate to question someone’s loyalty to their country" the following week. The municipality of Hastings County condemned Sloan's remarks as “cruel and racist” and unrepresentative of the people of his riding, before calling on him to be expelled from the Conservative Party. Sloan said the following day that he would not apologize, because "the idea people would think it was racist was not even on my mind. I would have said those statements about any public health officer that made those decisions in her spot". The Chinese Canadian National Council (SJ) submitted a letter to the Conservative Party demanding that Sloan be expelled from the party's caucus and denied the opportunity to run for its leadership. In an emergency session on April 29, 2020, Conservative MPs demanded Sloan apologize for his statements.

In 2018, Sloan announced that he would seek the Conservative Party of Canada nomination for the riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington. At the nomination meeting, Sloan defeated three other candidates: a city councillor who had served for fifteen years in Belleville, a lawyer who had lived in the area for twenty years, and a local business owner. Sloan defeated Liberal incumbent Mike Bossio in the 2019 federal election.

After graduating, Sloan moved to Toronto, Ontario to work at a water-fuel systems company. Then, between 2011 and 2014 he ran Sloan's Furniture Liquidation in Oshawa. In 2014, Sloan began a law degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and he finished articling in 2018. Sloan has said he pursued law because he was interested in "defending religious liberties against political correctness."

In 2003, Sloan enrolled at Pacific Union College (PUC), a private university in Napa Valley, California associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There he completed a bachelor degree in business in 2007. While attending PUC, Sloan served as president of the university's student association in 2007.

Derek Sloan MP (born November 11, 1984) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election. He is the first Seventh-day Adventist ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Sloan is running as a candidate for the Conservative Party leadership, and is known for his controversial views on LGBTQ issues, and making allegedly racist remarks.

Sloan was born in 1984 and raised near Waterford in Ontario. He attended Kingsway College, a private Seventh-day Adventist high school in Oshawa.