Clement to join leadership contest

Former cabinet minister will be fourth candidate

Former federal and provincial cabinet minister Tony Clement will join the Conservative leadership race on Tuesday, sources say.

Clement, who finished third in the 2004 Tory contest won by Stephen Harper, will make it official at Mississauga’s Streetsville Overseas Veterans’ Club.

The theme of his campaign will be “empowerment” and his supporters plan to tout his experience as a grassroots activist who helped rebuild the provincial Progressive Conservatives before Mike Harris led them to power at Queen’s Park in 1995.

He was also a key figure in the 2003 amalgamation of the federal Tories and the Canadian Alliance that united the right after a decade in the political wilderness.

Clement, 55, will become the fourth candidate in the race, joining MPs Maxime Bernier, 53, (Beauce) Michael Chong, 44, (Wellington-Halton Hills) and Kellie Leitch, 45, (Simcoe-Grey).

Tony Clement was a runner-up in the 2002 Ontario PC contest that was won by Ernie Eves

Clement has been the Parry Sound-Muskoka MP since winning the riding by 28 votes in 2006. He represented Brampton West-Mississauga provincially until 2003.

While well-regarded in the conservative movement for a generation, one knock against Clement is that he is a perennial bridesmaid in leadership campaigns.

Aside from the 2004 federal race, he was a runner-up in the 2002 Ontario PC contest won by former premier Ernie Eves.

But his backers said Friday he has a path to victory in a leadership to be decided at a convention next May.

Unlike retired former minister Peter MacKay — the presumptive front-runner, though he has yet to enter — Clement stuck around to fight the October election won by the Liberals.

“He didn’t cut and run,” noted one adviser.

Nor has Clement been shy about distancing himself — albeit after the fact — from some of Harper’s more controversial decisions while in power.

The former Treasury Board president, industry minister and health minister has been critical of Ottawa’s $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia initiated by the Tories and finalized by the Liberals.