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Editorial: Conservative coronation lining up

More potential leadership candidates have stepped away than have entered the race

Peter MacKay
Peter MacKay was a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership, now throwing weight behind O'Toole. (January 2020 file photo)
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Sunday January 26, 2020 ~ NATIONAL

EDITORIAL by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News

Now that the federal Conservatives have moved Andrew Scheer out of the way (he’s still interim leader after what his party considers ‘his loss’ of the 2019 election — as if a flip flop between governance by Liberals and Conservatives is a law of the universe), more people have stepped back from declaring their intention to run for party leadership than have stepped forward.

This leaves Peter MacKay in the spotlight, with Erin O’Toole nearly and clearly talked about but without the coronation vibe that MacKay is already seeing thrust beneath his wings.

Northern Ontario MP Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia—Lambton) is in the race with good stalwart Conservative intentions, but so far lacks sizzle in her public persona. Pierre Poilievre was set to run but has suddenly ‘put family first’.

Rona Ambrose
Rona Ambrose says she will not run for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership in 2020. Ambrose was the party’s interim leader from 2015 to 2017 [file photo 2019]

The other high-profile Conservative — Rona Ambrose — who could have made this a real race, is putting her much talked about ‘comfortable private life’ first with a dash of ‘serving causes through the private sector’; there’s always the next decade.

Although from Western Canada, Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary-Nose Hill) has garnered a lot of on-air media exposure in the last year or two, but seems uninterested in clashing with the big guns for the top job.

There is a key difference between Liberals and Conservatives — one wears and lives their politics through the thread of their lives, and the other separates one from the other around a fulcrum of capital gain and knowing their place within the tribe.

Leadership candidates must declare by February 27, and there are some high bars to meet. By March 25, verified candidates will have each met a total financial obligation of $300,000 ($100,000 of that is eventually refundable) and will have secured 3,000 signatures (the first 1,000 in 30 electoral districts across seven provinces). The leadership vote is set for June 27.

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This editorial was first published on page 2 in the January 24, 2020 print-PDF Weekend Edition of West Shore Voice News

Peter MacKay set to enter Conservative leadership race (January 15, 2020)