(OTTAWA) Former Ontario Conservative MP Leona Alleslev will confirm on Wednesday that she is running for the Conservative Party leadership.
Posted at 5:20 p.m.
Elected under the Liberal banner in 2015 in the federal riding of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richamon Hill, Mme Alleslev sided with the Conservatives in September 2018, decrying the Trudeau government’s spending, which she deemed uncontrolled. She won re-election under the Conservative banner in the 2019 election, but she bit the dust two years later.
A conservative source confirmed to The Press that Mme Alleslev, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces, announced his intentions Wednesday during a scheduled press conference on Parliament Hill. She will thus add her name to a list of more than half a dozen candidates who are trying to succeed Erin O’Toole at the helm of the Conservative Party.
The other candidates are Conservative MP for the Ottawa region Pierre Poilievre, former Premier of Quebec Jean Charest, Mayor of Brampton and former Conservative MP Patrick Brown, as well as Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis, who is trying his chance for a second time.
Other candidates who have announced plans to run are BC Conservative MP Marc Dalton and his Ontario colleague Scott Aitchison as well as Ontario MPP Roman Baber.
Candidates who wish to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party have until April 19 to confirm their intentions by paying the entry fee of $200,000 and another sum of $100,000 which is refundable at the end of the race. .
The next leader of the Conservative Party will be elected on September 10.