Peterson officially announces bid for Conservative leadership
EDMONTON A prominent Alberta businessman has officially thrown his hat into the ring of the federal Conservative leadership race.
Rick Peterson, an Edmonton-based venture capitalist, formally announced Wednesday at High Arctic Energy Services he’ll take a second run at the leadership after he was defeated by Andrew Scheer in 2017. An outside candidate not currently holding any seat in office, Peterson is the first Western Canada candidate to announce his run at the party leadership.
Founder of Peterson Capital and the Suits and Boots campaign, Peterson has said a Conservative party under his leadership would implement a 15-per-cent federal income tax and a zero-per-cent corporate tax. He also highlighted a need for the party to embrace the LGBTQ community. He’ll look to kill the carbon tax and rewrite policies he says block resource development.
Peterson launched Suits and Boots to combat the Trudeau government’s energy policies, including Bill C-69 and Bill C-48. The Suits and Boots website claims its goal is to “help influence policy-makers and decision-makers to support responsible resource development in Canada.”
Peterson finished with just 0.7 per cent of Conservative votes three years ago — good enough for 12th out of 14 candidates. This year, he’ll be running against Peter Mackay and Erin O’toole, both of whom currently hold prominent positions within the party.
In a recent interview, Peterson said the leadership race has lacked any discussion of policy and if he’s leader, he’ll look to private businesses to use innovation for “creative disruption” to generate word of mouth and media coverage as he fights against some of the proverbial big fish in the race.