Former Tory MP Leona Alleslev misses fundraising deadline for leadership race

OTTAWA

Former Conservative MP Leona Alleslev says she has failed to raise the thousands of dollars needed to make it as a candidate in the party’s leadership race.

Alleslev announced she was no longer in the running for Erin O’Toole’s former job after the deadline closed Friday for candidates to submit their full $300,000 in entry fees.

“As deputy leader of the Conservative Party, a member of Parliament for six years, a private sector leader, small business owner, and former Air Force officer, I would have provided a perspective that none of the verified leadership candidates would offer,” she said in a statement.

“The short time provided to raise the $300,000 registration fee prevented me from achieving this goal.”

Alleslev lost her federal seat in the Greater Toronto Area during last year’s federal election and announced earlier this month she would seek the top job.

She had served as the party’s deputy leader after crossing the floor from the governing Liberals to join the Conservatives in 2018 and being re-elected under the Tory banner in 2019.

Alleslev had met the party’s first test of handing in a first instalment of $50,000 by mid-April. Her campaign team previously said she also secured the necessary number of nomination signatures required by the party’s leadership election organizing committee.

So far, the party says six candidates have met all of the requirements to officially be in the race when Conservatives select their new leader Sept. 10.

Others who were trying to make Friday’s deadline for fundraising included British Columbia MP Marc Dalton, who as of Friday afternoon was still asking for donations.

Dalton was among the five candidates the party had listed as having met the first deadline of submitting their first $50,000.

Whatever final applications the party received by Friday’s deadline had to undergo verification before a final list of candidates would be released.