Harper asks for help to pay MacKay’s debt

OTTAWA Former prime minister Stephen Harper is once again going to bat for Peter MacKay in a bid to help him pay off his debt from the 2020 Conservative party leadership race.

Sixteen months after the contest, MacKay still owes about $500,000 and in a letter to party members and supporters this week, Harper said people need to help him pay that down.

“I understand that times are tight, but I do not want to see Peter and his family’s future weighed down by debt incurred in the service of our country and our Conservative party,” Harper wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Star.

MacKay was considered the front-runner heading into the leadership contest, which began after Andrew Scheer announced in December 2019 that he intended to step down.

The COVID-19 pandemic began just months later, forcing the lion’s share of campaigning and fundraising into the virtual sphere and delaying the vote.

The winner was ultimately chosen in a mail-in vote using ranked ballots.

MacKay lost after supporters of candidates Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis backed Erin O’Toole.

In his letter, Harper called MacKay’s leadership bid “a strong and thoughtful campaign,” and noted his longstanding ties to the party.

MacKay was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada when it merged with Harper’s Canadian Alliance to create the current Conservative party.

In the letter, Harper acknowledged MacKay’s role in founding the modern party, as well as the cabinet positions he later held in Harper’s Conservative government.

“I believe that people who serve the country deserve our support,” he wrote.

“That is why I am asking you today to contribute to the effort to pay down Peter’s remaining leadership campaign debt.”

It’s not the first time Harper has come out to support MacKay.

Harper and former prime minister Brian Mulroney have held private fundraisers to help with MacKay’s campaign expenses. In the letter, he notes that the pandemic means such events are not going to be possible in the foreseeable future.

MacKay spent about $4.6 million on his leadership bid, and ended the race with about $1 million in debt, a figure his campaign has said was pushed higher by the need to hire private security in the wake of threats against his family during the race.

He’s been whittling away at it ever since, and with a new calendar year meaning a clean slate for donation limits, his campaign is hoping to see the final $500,000 brought down further in the coming months.

MacKay moved his family from Toronto to his home province of Nova Scotia after the leadership race, and chose to remain on the sidelines after considering a run in last year’s federal election.