Staying out of it
Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose won’t vote for her replacement
Rona Ambrose took on the job of interim Conservative leader with the goal of identifying and developing the party’s future leaders – but apparently, that doesn’t include voting for one.
Ambrose is not taking part in the voting, which has been underway by mail for weeks and will culminate May 27 when the party gathers in Toronto to announce the winner.
“I feel strongly (that) even casting a secret ballot, you’re thinking about who you think should win,” she said. “I’m staying very neutral.”
Ambrose will have the same piece of advice for whomever emerges the winner: Job 1 needs to be keeping the party together. It was the lone piece of political counsel she got from her predecessor, former prime minister Stephen Harper.
“He’s really given me my space to do my thing but that was his (advice): ‘Never forget, Rona, never forget, that the most important thing is the caucus; without the caucus there is no party,”’ Ambrose said.
When she looked around caucus in the aftermath of the 2015 election, Ambrose said, she realized much of the institutional memory and experience had left along with the Conservative majority.
One option was to follow suit and quit, but she decided to go another route: seek the interim leadership and set about protecting the party Harper had built and laying the groundwork for its future.
Ambrose has announced her plan to quit politics once the House of Commons rises for the summer. She said she’ll be walking away feeling like she’s helped renew the confidence of old MPs and bolster that of new ones.
The party didn’t really have a succession plan for leadership, so she set about building one. It included placing rookies and veterans alike – she specifically mentioned Lisa Raitt and Andrew Scheer, both of whom are now seeking the permanent leadership – into shadow cabinet posts.
“I didn’t know these people would actually run for the leadership,” Ambrose said. “I placed them in positions of some authority and some responsibility, because I felt we had to build that for the future.”
Ambrose’s future holds work as a visiting fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Centre, where she’ll focus on the U.S.-Canada relationship.