EX-MP PROHIBITED FROM RUNNING AS A CONSERVATIVE

The federal Conservatives are refusing to let former cabinet minister Steven Fletcher run under the Tory banner in the next election. Fletcher wants to win back his old Winnipeg riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley, a seat he held for more than a decade before losing it in 2015 to Liberal Doug Eyolfson. But he says he got an email Thursday from the party’s executive director, Dustin Van Vugt, saying his bid to seek the nomination had been rejected, without any explanation. Fletcher ran for the provincial Tories in Manitoba after losing his federal seat and won in 2016, but a year later was booted out of that caucus for publicly breaking with the party on a number of policies, including voting against a bill to create a Crown corporation on energy efficiency.