Dorian Baxter

His Grace Dorian Arthur Baxter
The Federation of Independent Anglican Churches of North America
Orders
Ordination	15 May 1983
Personal details
Born	Dorian Baxter (1950-04-03) 3 April 1950 Mombasa Island, Kenya
Nationality	Canadian
Children	2
Alma mater	York University, University of Toronto

Dorian Baxter (born 3 April 1950 in Mombasa Island, Kenya) is an Anglican Archbishop in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He is also known by the nickname "Elvis Priestley" for his use Elvis Presley's music in his services.

Background

Baxter was baptized and confirmed by the first Black Bishop of Mombasa in Mombasa Cathedral. His father, Arthur Baxter, was a major in the British Army and his mother, Ena Baxter, was a corporal. From 1962 to 1967, he competed in the Amateur Boxer in Kenya National Championships, but failed to gain a medal. In 1966, he became the Kenya National Backstroke Champion. Baxter came to Canada, landing on 28 March 1968, moving to Toronto.

Education and ministry

He obtained his B.A. from York University in humanities and his master's degree in divinity from the University of Toronto. He has been an educator for over 30 years, commencing his career as a classroom teacher with the York County Board of Education in 1970 (Roy H. Crosby Public School, Markham). In 1972, he was invited by the headmaster of St. George's College, Jack Wright, to join the staff. Baxter taught Grades 4 through to 10, coached the school swim teams, and ran the Independent Schools Athletic Association (Swimming) in Ontario.

In 1980 Baxter resigned after a quarrel with the headmaster, a Mr. Allen, who attempted to fire Baxter before the end of the school year. Over 400 parents protested and Baxter was immediately reinstated and an apology letter was written to him by Allen.

At the end of the school year, he resigned and entered Wycliffe College of the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto. He was ordained at St. James' Cathedral on 15 May 1983 after serving as Head of Divinity, elected by the student body at the college. He served as a priest with the Anglican Church of Canada at St. Paul's Church in Thunder Bay, Ontario and as priest-in-charge of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Manitouwadge, Ontario. He then was an associate professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

In 1996 Baxter began incorporating the music and look of Elvis Presley into his services. That year, he won the Canadian Showstopper at the Collingwood Elvis Festival. In 1997 he won the Grand Champion of Showstoppers at that same festival. After that year, festival founder Billy Cann was ousted and control given to the town's business groups, a decision which Baxter objected to before Collingwood Town Council. Baxter joined Cann to establish a competing Elvis festival in Orillia and has since refused to return to the Collingwood festival.

In 1998, Bishop Ronald Ferris of the Diocese of Algoma removed Baxter from his parish and revoked his license to perform Anglican weddings because of his use of Elvis in Anglican services, saying it was "in poor taste". In 2002, the church revoked his invitation to be the keynote preacher at a Masonic service in a Toronto Anglican church. Baxter has said he found this particularly difficult, as he has been a Freemason for more than 25 years and was Worshipful Master of his lodge in 1980. Baxter attended the service anyway.

Baxter says that the controversy re: Collingwood originated when the media reported that Yvonne Prince had falsely told reporters he performed weddings and funerals dressed as Elvis, which he denies doing. Instead, he says, he performs the services in traditional clerical garb and changes into the Elvis clothes for the reception. He is now fully recognized federally and provincially as the Archbishop of the Federation of Independent Anglican Churches of North America. As the governing authority of this federation, Baxter legally performs weddings himself and licenses his own priests and bishops to perform such weddings.

In 2003, he set up an independent church, Christ the King Graceland Independent Anglican Church of Canada, in Newmarket, Ontario, where he continues to conduct services using Presley's music, with his signature Elvis pompadour and sideburns. Baxter was consecrated on 9 March 2003 in Newmarket by the Rt. Rev'd Christopher Andrew Jukes of Calgary, Alberta, who at that time was a bishop in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, using the traditional ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer (1962 Canada). He also established the Federation of Independent Anglican Churches of North America with himself as archbishop; this organisation was incorporated by Federal Canadian Letters Patent on 1 October 2003.

Political life

Baxter has run for federal Parliament four times in the riding of Newmarket-Aurora, under the Progressive Canadian Party banner. In the 2004 federal election, he received 1,079 votes, placing last out of five candidates. In the 2006 election he received 729 votes, and in the 2008 election he received 1,004 votes. He placed fifth out of six candidates in both 2006 and 2008. In the 2011 election, he received 1,001 votes, placing fifth out of six candidates, surpassing only Yvonne Mackie of the Animal Alliance Environment party. Baxter also ran in the 2010 by-election in the riding of Vaughan, finishing seventh of out eight candidates with 110 votes. He ran in the by-election for Markham—Thornhill on 3 April 2017. He placed a surprising fourth out of seven candidates, ahead of the Green Party of Canada candidate.

He founded NAPPA (The National Association for Public and Private Accountability) on the heels of his unprecedented successful lawsuit against the Durham Region Children's Aid society. (See judgement by Justice Somers, 22 March 1994. Baxter versus Durham Region Children's Aid Society).

Baxter serves as official Padre to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 426.

Electoral record

Canadian federal by-election, April 3, 2017: Markham—Thornhill (federal electoral district) Resignation of John McCallum
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mary Ng	9,856	51.53	−4.19
	Conservative	Ragavan Paranchothy	7,501	39.22	+6.91
	New Democratic	Gregory Hines	671	3.51	−7.21
	Progressive Canadian	Dorian Baxter	566	2.96
	Green	Caryn Bergmann	426	2.23	+0.98
	Libertarian	Brendan Thomas Reilly	118	0.62
	Independent	Above Znoneofthe	77	0.40
Total valid votes/expense limit			19,125	100.0	–
Total rejected ballots				-
Turnout			27.51
Eligible voters			69,838
	Liberal hold		Swing		−5.55

2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Kyle Peterson	25,508	45.18	+21.47	–
	Conservative	Lois Brown	24,057	42.61	−11.45	–
	New Democratic	Yvonne Kelly	4,806	8.51	−7.28	–
	Green	Vanessa Long	1,331	2.36	−2.03	–
	Progressive Canadian	Dorian Baxter	762	1.35		–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			56,464	100.00		$219,391.75
Total rejected ballots			257	0.45	–
Turnout			56,721	68.25	–
Eligible voters			83,108
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing		+16.46
Source: Elections Canada

2014 Newmarket Mayoral Eelction	Vote	%
Tony Van Bynen (X)	10,816	54.01
Chris Campbell	7,804	38.97
Dorian Baxter	1,407	7.03

2014 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Chris Ballard	22,942	43.80	+8.18
	Progressive Conservative	Jane Twinney	19,510	37.25	-9.99
	New Democratic	Angus Duff	6,092	11.63	-2.73
	Green	Andrew Roblin	2,167	4.14	+1.37
	Canadians' Choice	Dorian Baxter	925	1.77
	Libertarian	Jason Jenkins	579	1.11
	Trillium	Bob Yaciuk	164	0.31
Total valid votes			52,379	100.00
	Liberal gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+9.09
Source: Elections Ontario

Canadian federal by-election, November 25, 2013: Toronto Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Chrystia Freeland	17,194	49.38	+8.37	$ 97,609.64
	New Democratic	Linda McQuaig	12,640	36.30	+6.09	99,230.30
	Conservative	Geoff Pollock	3,004	8.63	−14.01	75,557.39
	Green	John Deverell	1,034	2.97	−2.05	21,521.10
	Progressive Canadian	Dorian Baxter	453	1.30		–
	Libertarian	Judi Falardeau	236	0.68	+0.18	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	84	0.24		560.00
	Independent	John "The Engineer" Turmel	56	0.16		–
	Independent	Leslie Bory	51	0.15		633.30
	Online	Michael Nicula	43	0.12		200.00
	Independent	Bahman Yazdanfar	26	0.07	−0.12	1,134.60
Total valid votes/expense limit			34,821	99.49	–	$ 101,793.06
Total rejected ballots			177	0.51	+0.12
Turnout			34,998	37.72	−25.21
Eligible voters			92,780
	Liberal hold		Swing		+1.14
By-election due to the resignation of Bob Rae.
Source(s) "November 25, 2013 By-elections Poll-by-poll results". Elections Canada. Retrieved 20 August 2020. "November 25, 2013 By-election – Financial Reports". Retrieved 9 May 2014.

Canadian federal by-election, Toronto—Danforth: 19 March 2012
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Craig Scott	19,210	59.4	–
	Liberal	Grant Gordon	9,215	28.5	–
	Conservative	Andrew Keyes	1,736	5.4
	Green	Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu	1,517	4.7	–
	Progressive Canadian	Dorian Baxter	207	0.6	–
	Libertarian	John Christopher Recker	133	0.4	–
	Canadian Action	Christopher Porter	77	0.2	–
	Independent	Leslie Bory	76	0.2	–
	Independent	John Turmel	57	0.2	–
	United	Brian Jedan	54	0.2	–
	Independent	Bahman Yazdanfar	36	0.1	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			32,318	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			–	–	–
Turnout			32,318	43.4	–

See also

• Elvis impersonator

External links

• Christ the King Graceland