Chris Lloyd, Papineau Conservative, was asked to resign

Chris Lloyd says he's surprised he lasted as long as he did as a Conservative candidate, giventhat he didn'tgoto great lengths to hide the fact that his campaign was part of an art project.

Lloydresigned as the Conservative candidate for Montreal's Papineau ridingafter a CBC News investigation revealed his campaign and party involvement in Montreal were part of a decade-long art project.

• Chris Lloyd, Papineau Conservative candidate, resigns
• Chris Lloyd, Conservative candidate, 'messing with' party

During an interview with CBC Radio'sInformation MorningSaint John, Lloyd talked about meeting with Conservative Party executives and attending the 2011 Conservative convention.

Information Morning - Saint John9:07Chris Lloyd, Artful Politics In Papineau

Listen to Chris Lloyd's first interview with media since his resignation as Conservative candidate.

"I gave them a link to the 'Dear PM'blogand I told them about my letter-writing project, which I think maybe raised some eyebrows, but I think they didn't go quite as deeply as they could have," he said.

Lloydhas been writing a letter to the prime minister nearly every day since 2001. His topics run from the mundane to more critical.

I really wanted to see if I could push the Conservative message.- Chris Lloyd

The artist saidit wasn't his intention to deceive his supporters, oradd cynicism to the democratic process.

"I have to admit, I think our democratic process is an incredibly cynical, broken, kind of twisted affair.We generally don't elect independent candidates," he said."I really wanted to see if I could push the Conservative message, run under it and actually make a difference."

Lloyd hoped to 'weather media storm'

In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, published late Tuesdaynight on his blog"Dear PM," Lloyd described the fallout after the news surfaced.

"I met [redacted] at a caf where I tried to convince him we could weather this media storm together, but to no avail," he wrote.

"He presented me with the resignation papers and I signed."

I believe making art is an inherently political act - sometimes more political than we realize.- Chris Lloyd

Lloyd, a native of Saint John, was acclaimed in February as the candidate to run against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in theMontrealriding of Papineau in this year's federal election.

At an art discussion in Fredericton in March, Lloyd said he was a member of all political parties at one point, as well as a member of Leadnow, a group bent on preventing a Conservative majority.

It was at that same art discussion that Lloyd said he's been writing about his plan to become a political candidate for years.

"I'm going to like mess with your party, I'm totally, like, going to wait till the writ is dropped, then it's going to be party time," he said.

In his latest blog post, Lloyd said he tried to explain the "messing with" quotation to the person he met with, but didn't have any luck.

Artist has no regrets

The artist addedthat he does not regret anything,doesn't consider his political career to be over, and thinks there arestill opportunities for some interesting marriages of art and politics, leading up to the election.

On his blog, Lloyd saidhe hopes the experience will provide "fresh insights into the nature of, and the relationship between, the personal and the political in this, the age of social media."

He wrote that he believes making art is "an inherently political act sometimes more political than we realize."