Conservative MP Watts to join B.C. Liberal leadership race
Conservative MP Dianne Watts is expected to join the B.C. Liberal leadership race Sunday.
The former Surrey mayor, elected federally in South SurreyWhite Rock in 2015, has invited media and supporters to “a special event and announcement” Sunday afternoon at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel at which she is expected to announce her candidacy.
Interim party leader Rich Coleman said this week that Watts was among seven potential candidates who have been approaching the caucus and the business community as they gauge support for a bid and begin to raise money.
Other prominent names who have been considering their chances include former Liberal cabinet ministers Mike Bernier, Todd Stone, Mike de Jong and Andrew Wilkinson, Liberal MLA (and former Vancouver Mayor) Sam Sullivan and former federal MP Herb Dhaliwal.
The deadline for candidates to enter the leadership race is Dec. 29 but Monday is the deadline for hopefuls to pay the $10,000 entry fee and qualify to attend the first leadership forum, set for Vancouver on Sept. 29.
Watts served as Surrey mayor from 2005 to 2014. A survey conducted last month by Mainstreet Research suggested de Jong was the top candidate to replace Christy Clark, who stepped down as leader and the member for Kelowna-West after her Liberal government lost a non-confidence vote earlier this summer.
Mainstreet tested the names of five potential leadership candidates — de Jong, Stone, Wilkinson, Bernier and VancouverLangara MLA Michael Lee — and asked British Columbians who they would support in the Liberal leadership race.
A total of 20 per cent of respondents and 35 per cent of Liberal voters said de Jong would make the best opposition leader, while 18 per cent of those polled and 30 per cent of Liberal voters said he would also fare the best in the next election against NDP Premier John Horgan.
Among B.C. Liberal voters, 28 per cent said they would support de Jong, with Stone receiving eight per cent, Wilkinson seven per cent, Bernier four per cent and Lee two per cent.
The poll did not include Watts. A large portion, 42 per cent, of Liberal voters are unsure who they would support, while eight per cent said they’d cast their ballot for someone else.
In another survey last month by Insights West, Watts had the highest favourability rating of prospective leadership candidates at 39 per cent, followed by Sullivan at 30 per cent and de Jong at 28 per cent.
Three days of online and phone voting by Liberal party members is slated to begin at the start of next February and a leader will be announced on Feb. 3 at a convention in Vancouver.