By justin Parohl - CJXX Radio - Pattison Broadcasting Grande Prairie

Interestng names in the mix as Federal Tories set 2017 Date to Choose new Leader

Jan 20, 2016 | 9:50 AM

LETHBRIDGE:  The Federal Conservatives have announced they will choose a new leader on May 27th, 2017.

Grande Prairie Regional College Political Scientist Dawn Moffat-McMaster says the early front-runner is former MP Peter MacKay.

“There have been five polls done since the election in October, and in all of those actually Peter MacKay was leading. He has not said he will run, so it remains to be seen whether he is actually interested, but I think that it’s fairly significant that he was the leading candidate in all of those polls.”

Moffat-McMaster says other names to watch for include current MP’s Maxime Bernier, Tony Clement, Lisa Raitt and Jason Kenney, as well as former Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford and businessman and TV personality Kevin O’Leary. She says O’Leary has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump.

“You’re talking about someone who is a businessman. Who has had a pretty high-profile as a reality television star, and also has had not just a high-profile, but a particular personality in his television work as being blunt.”
According to Moffat-McMaster, the 16 month process is longer than we typically see, but it’s not unusual given the upheaval we’ve seen in the party.

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“I don’t think they were expecting to lose on anywhere near the scale that they did. The way that the election campaign was run there were a number of issues that were really controversial and they are not only having to elect a new leader, but I think they are trying to decide what the approach for the whole party should be.”

Rona Ambrose has been serving as interim Leader since Stephen Harper stepped down after October’s election defeat.