Oliver loses bid to be Ontario PC candidate

TORONTO • Former federal finance minister Joe Oliver has lost his bid to become a Progressive Conservative candidate in the next Ontario election.

Oliver was one of several former Conservative MPs who were defeated in 2015 and have been trying to secure provincial nominations, attempting to join a party doing well in the polls, and one that is helmed by their former caucus colleague.

Oliver, the former MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, was vying to become the PC candidate for York Centre ahead of the June 2018 Ontario election, but was defeated Sunday by lawyer Roman Baber.

Though his victory may have surprised political observers, Baber suggested it didn’t come as a huge shock to himself.

“I think it was generally known that we’ve been working very hard at this and made significant outreach efforts around York Centre, so we’re happy those efforts paid off,” he said.

Baber said before the nomination race the riding association had only about 100 members, and his campaign signed up 1,314 new members. He was told Oliver’s campaign signed up roughly 550 new members. Oliver did not respond to an interview request through a spokeswoman.

Baber said he employed the tactics that the party leader has espoused.

“I subscribe to Patrick Brown’s message that it’s incumbent on us to expand the Conservative base and welcome new Conservative voters to the party,” he said. “I modelled my campaign after that premise and reached out to the Filipino, the Russian, the Vietnamese, Tamil and Lebanese communities. Second of all, we made sure that no stone was unturned in terms of organization and thankfully were able to bring a good ground game to get us to win.”