Clarke playing coy on provincial PC Party leadership aspirations
SYDNEY — Will he or won’t he? Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Cecil Clarke’s name emerged as a potential Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party leadership candidate this week, not long after Jamie Baillie announced we would vacate the post. When asked on Friday, however, the current mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality quickly discounted that notion, but without actually coming out and saying the word “no.” “What I’m interested in is finishing what we started and that is the port of Sydney and realizing the economic opportunities that I’ve committed to, what council has committed to,” Clarke said during a media scrum at Centre 200 for the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
“That’s the leadership role I’m focused on and I’m dedicated to and seeing through.” Clarke was re-elected mayor of the CBRM in 2016. Shortly after his victory, he announced his second term as mayor would be his last.
“Right now my priority is the leadership required to see the port of Sydney be developed,” he said on Friday.
“We are working on that, we are working forward on that opportunity and that is my only focus at this time.”
Baillie, who has been partly leader since 2010, announced Wednesday he would be stepping down as soon as a replacement was found. Besides Clarke, Pictou East MLA Tim Houston, and Rob Batherson, a former party president, were among the replacements posed by political pundits.