TORY LEADERSHIP FIELD GROWS.
OTTAWA • With the cut-off date to enter the Conservative leadership race quickly approaching, two more entries have brought the field of candidates to six, and it could grow larger yet.
However, the Feb. 27 deadline — which requires a $25,000 fee and 1,000 party member signatures — is also the easiest one to meet. To get onto the final ballot, candidates face the much tougher test of raising $300,000 and collecting 3,000 signatures by March 25.
Derek Sloan, a rookie MP from rural Ontario, and Jim Karahalios, an Ontario political activist, have now both been approved by the party to run. They join Peter MacKay, Erin O'Toole, Marilyn Gladu and Leslyn Lewis as official candidates. Three of the six candidates — Lewis, Sloan and Karahalios — have the backing of the Campaign Life Coalition and other social-conservative organizations who have been collecting signatures for their supported candidates.
Meanwhile, the party has also announced its two official leadership debates: an English-language one in Toronto on April 17, and a French-language in Toronto on April 23.
Sloan's candidate biography, posted on the party's website, puts a heavy emphasis on religious liberty and freedom of speech.
“Without a definite turn, our country is heading on a dangerous path that will involve the elimination of charitable status to churches that don't have politically correct teachings on sexuality, marriage and gender, and will also likely make preaching certain things illegal,” Sloan's biography says.
Karahalios is running as an anti-establishment candidate, arguing the Conservatives should avoid electing “another career politician” as leader. Although best known for his “Axe the Carbon Tax” campaign he fought against Patrick Brown's Ontario PC Party, Karahalios has also battled party officials over allegations they ran fraudulent nomination contests. He's currently suing the provincial party for alleged ballot-box stuffing during his run for party president in 2019.
A handful of other candidates are still expecting to get in the race, including Alberta businessman Rick Peterson and former political staffer Rudy Husny.
The campaign team for Richard Décarie, who has strong backing from social conservatives, says his materials have been submitted but they haven't yet heard from the party.