2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election

[Benjamin Frank]

Interestingly Candice Bergen's district (Portage-Lisgar, Manitoba) had the best showing for the PPC in the last election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage%E2%80%94Lisgar

She married a man with the last name Hoeppner.  When she was first elected her name was Candice Hoeppner.

[Benjamin Frank]

The buzz in my circles is that people want somebody with Poilievre's ideas but not his rhetoric. I also have a friend who's normally a Liberal voter but has been won over by Michelle Rempel. Frankly I have no clue how this plays out and I give it 50-50 odds that my avatar is back to Independent in a couple months. Godspeed, Murphy Brown.

Polievre doesn't have ideas. He's a glib ignoramus.

[Benjamin Frank]

Pierre has the persona of a campus Conservative fixated on "owning" libs. 

Kind of fulfilling Andrew Coyne's point from not so long back...

"Moreover, while the Liberals, as the party of power and therefore of cabinet posts, have always been able to recruit individuals with a record of accomplishment in other fields, the Conservatives tend to get stuck with the lifers, people who have never done anything but partisan politics and are motivated by nothing so much as hatred of the Grits. Which may explain why the party’s leading lights so often look and sound like campus Conservatives."


 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-more-than-leadership-or-policy-its-the-conservative-temperament-thats/

Over 30 Conservative M.Ps were previously political staffers, but a good number of them also had jobs outside of politics.

[Benjamin Frank]

Pierre has the persona of a campus Conservative fixated on "owning" libs.  

Kind of fulfilling Andrew Coyne's point from not so long back...

"Moreover, while the Liberals, as the party of power and therefore of cabinet posts, have always been able to recruit individuals with a record of accomplishment in other fields, the Conservatives tend to get stuck with the lifers, people who have never done anything but partisan politics and are motivated by nothing so much as hatred of the Grits. Which may explain why the party’s leading lights so often look and sound like campus Conservatives."


 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-more-than-leadership-or-policy-its-the-conservative-temperament-thats/

Generally true although in Alberta prior to 2015, PCs were party that got a lot of top individuals, many who weren't even very conservative but ran there as they were party expected to win.

Ontario PCs in 2018 actually had a pretty strong slate, but being in the lead in the polls for over 2 years probably helped a lot.  Federal Liberal slate in 2015 was pretty weak compared to past for this reason.  I think main thing is party has to look like it can win before strong ones sign up as many accomplished individuals want to serve country not be stuck in opposition forever.

The Liberals ran a strong to very strong slate in 2015.  They didn't all work out (like Jody Wilson Raybould - not that she was the problem - and, say, Andrew Leslie) but as was said at the time, while Tom Mulcair and the NDP were out-hustling the Liberals in the House of Commons, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were out organizing the NDP in the ridings.

[Benjamin Frank]

These are the Conservative M.Ps who were previously political staffers.

1.Mark Strahl, career political staffer, son of M.P Chuck Strahl
2.Brad Vis, also was a consultant for a consulting firm.
3.Damien Kurek, also was a farmer and oil and gas sector worker
4.Laila Goodridge, also was a construction company health and safety administrator
5.Shannon Stubbs, career political staffer
6.Tim Uppal, also a bank residential mortgage manager
7.Matt Jeneroux, also was a federal civil servant
8.Garnett Genuis, career political staffer
9.Dane Lloyd, career civilian political staffer, also an army reserve lieutenant
10.Greg McLean, also was a chartered investment manager
11.Stephanie Kusie, also was a diplomat
12.Tom Kmiec, also was a registrar
13.Ron Liepert, also a journalist and communications consultant
14.Romemarie Falk, also a social worker
15.Cathay Wagnatall, also an athletic director and print company co-owner
16.Warren Steinley, career senior political staffer (Sask Party director of research) but played senior amateur hockey
17.Andrew Scheer, briefly an insurance company office clerk
18.Candice Bergen, career political staffer
19.Raquel Dancho, career political staffer
20.Pierre Polievre, briefly a Magna corp Public Relations staffer
21.Shelby Kramp Neuman, but held seemingly every other job in existence (financial advisor, instructor, diplomat and municipal councilor)
22.Jamie Schmale, also a CHUM radio news director
23.Adam Chambers, also a lawyer and businessperson
24.Dan Muys, also a communications and public relations firm owner
25.Tony Baldinelli, also a Niagara Parks manager of communications and stakeholder relations
26.John Nater, also a federal civil servant
27.Karen Vecchio, also a restaurant owner and manager
28.Lianne Rood, also a potato farmer
29.Joel Godin, also a communications firm president
30.Luc Berthold, also a newspaper editor
31.Rick Perkins, also a retail wine and spirits chain store owner
32.John Williamson, also a National Post editorialist and so-called Canadian Taxpayer's Federation president (basically a career politician)

So, only around 9 were career political staffers, but they - Andrew Scheer, Candice Bergen and Pierre Polievre - clearly have an outsized influence on the party.

[Benjamin Frank]

I've always thought CPC MPs with lots of real world experience not conducive to being strong political performers - like Rob Morrison - seem to get sidelined, when they might have the makings of decent ministers.

Oh sure.  There are quite a number of fairly impressive Conservative M.Ps. Just to name a few in the West: Todd Doherty, John Barlow, Ron Liepert, Tim Uppal, Randy Hoback, Kelly Block, Marty Morantz and Raquel Dancho (even though she was a career political staffer.) 

[Benjamin Frank]

Not mentioned on this board, but obviously directly and indirectly related, Kevin Falcon won the British Columbia provincial Liberal Party leadership.  The Provincial Liberals, for those who don't know, aren't connected to the Federal Liberals, but are a coalition of Liberal and Conservative 'free enterprisers' that goes back under three names to 1945 and has governed British Columbia for most of the time since then (not to say that these coalitions were all the same ideologically.)  

Coalition from 1945-1952
Social Credit from 1952-1991
Liberal 1996 (or so) to present

Not to get off topic, but the main battle within these coalitions was over urban/rural.  The more urban based parties, the Coalition and the Liberals, are more of a pro big business/attract foreign investment and socially liberal party, while the more rural based Social Credit was primarily concerned with the interests of small business. Not surprisingly, they were far more populist and also more socially conservative.

Anyway, Kevin Falcon was a B.C Liberal MLA from 2001-2013 and strikes me as being quite similar to Pierre Polievre.  He was a hyper partisan flamethrower, having somewhat made a name for himself prior to first getting elected as one of those concerned about then NDP Premier Glen Clark's 1996 'fudge-it budget.'  Yet, totally dismissing Gordon Campbell's similar 2005 'fudge-it budget.'  And even more so dismissing concerns over the 2009 'fudge-it budget' which then led to Premier Gordon Campbell after the election supporting the HST after saying in the campaign that he had no interest in bringing it in provincially (I personally thought it was much better policy than the provincial sales tax and was one of the 9% of British Columbians who supported Gordon Campbell before he resigned.)

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/07/12/FudgeBudget/

Both of them were/are hard right wing, and for both of them, their primary non political background was in communications.

Kevin Falcon, similar to Pierre Polievre, is also a nerdy glasses wearing 'four eyes' whose tough guy alpha male persona seems to be a serious need to compensate.

Anyway, Falcon, who left provincial politics in 2013 rather than run under Premier Christy Clark, and also clearly to make a lot of money in the private sector, has come back, and to me anyway, unlike the supposed Pierre Polievre 2.0, seems to be something of a genuine Kevin Falcon 2.0.  While he's obviously still a partisan, he seems far more relaxed and seems to have moderated his policy positions.  Maybe this is something Pierre Polievre should learn from.


To add briefly: B.C Liberal Premier Christy Clark patterned her government as an attempt to throwback to Social Credit.  She was primarily (or solely) concerned with natural gas development and more than infrequently invoked the Social Credit Premier from 1952-1972, WAC Bennett.  However, as has been discussed here before, the demographics of B.C are now heavily in favor of the urban areas, and her not only lack of interest in urban British Columbia, but her outright attempts to annoy urban British Columbians in order to, I guess, 'own the urbans' to curry favor with rural British Columbians, was not appreciated in the urban areas.

Her successor as Liberal leader, Andrew Wilkinson, was the stereotype of the out of touch pro (foreign) investment big business elitist.

The NDP clearly are going to attempt to paint Kevin Falcon as Andrew Wilkinson 2.0, and very likely as the twin of Pierre Polievre as well, and they have a lot of historical material to do both, but I'm not sure it's going to be as successful as they seem to be thinking it will be.

[Benjamin Frank]

On the B.C Liberal leadership race itself.  It seems that for whatever reason, the B.C Liberals did not release the results of the ballot right after they were counted, but put everything out all at once.  Kind of ruined the fun of the day for me anyway.

Kevin Falcon, who as I said above, I think has kind of morphed from a Conservative to a 'blue Liberal' led on the first ballot with around 47% of the vote. (or points actually since all ridings were assigned 100 points.)

Indigenous but hard right wing northern rural MLA Ellis Ross came second with 27% of the vote.  He clearly was the leading candidate of the Conservative wing of the party.

3rd place was Vancouver MLA Michael Lee with around 12% of the vote. Michael Lee was clearly the candidate of the 'red Liberals.'  Lee came in second on the first ballot in the 2018 leadership race with around 22% of the points.

I think his drop in support is mostly reflective of many 'red Liberals' in B.C now supporting the provincial NDP.

The remaining votes/points were split between Vancouver Municipal political activist Gavin Dew at 5% who I think tried to straddle the line between red and blue Liberals by speaking in vague generalities, and who was accused of using the leadership race to raise his profile for the upcoming Vancouver municipal election, Val Litwin the former Executive Director of the B.C Chamber of Commerce at 5% who I thought was a hardline 'red liberal' (he's said he'll leave the party if Kevin Falcon won the leadership), Kelowna area MLA Renee Merrifield at 3%, who I thought was a seemingly nice but fairly flakey right leaning 'new age' type, i.e one of those that believes in 'vaccine choice.'  (To be fair to her, she's also been a successful corporate executive) and Stan Sipos at 1%, a Trump type populist and property developer who had been a champion race car driver.

The race ended with three candidates remaining on the 5th ballot, with Kevin Falcon up to 52%, Ellis Ross at 34% and Michael Lee at 14%.  A bit surprising in that, since it was a preferential ballot, I would have thought that more of the Val Litwin voters would have given their second choice to Michael Lee.

I would say of the three Liberal leadership races since Gordon Campbell, they've all been won by 'blue Liberals' (even if Kevin Falcon still is a federal Conservative, which he might no longer be) over both the Conservative (though in 2018 Dianne Watts was clearly a 'Red Tory') and over the 'Red Liberal.'

The top three candidates in those races were
2011
1.Christy Clark, Blue Liberal 42%
2.Kevin Falcon, Conservative 30%
3.George Abbott, Red Liberal 28%

2018
1.Andrew Wilkinson, Blue Liberal 33%
2.Dianne Watts, Conservative 35%
3.Michael Lee, Red Liberal 32%

2022
1.Kevin Falcon, Blue Liberal 52%
2.Ellis Ross, Conservative 34%
3.Michael Lee, Red Liberal 14%

[Benjamin Frank]

B.C Liberal Premier Christy Clark patterned her government as an attempt to throwback to Social Credit.  She was primarily (or solely) concerned with natural gas development and more than infrequently invoked the Social Credit Premier from 1952-1972, WAC Bennett.  However, as has been discussed here before, the demographics of B.C are now heavily in favor of the urban areas, and her not only lack of interest in urban British Columbia, but her outright attempts to annoy urban British Columbians in order to, I guess, 'own the urbans' to curry favor with rural British Columbians, was not appreciated in the urban areas.

Most hilarious about that was that she (initially) represented the very urbane, culturally liberal "Brahmin" seat of Vancouver-Point Grey.  But she only took the seat by a hair in a 2011 by-election and then she lost it in the general election the Liberals won and she had to go to the interior to get a seat.  The 2013 election foreshadowed the breakdown of the old "free enterprise vs. socialists" polarization in BC.

Not to hijack this thread, but...
1.Yes, somewhat, but Christy Clark was first elected in the suburban Coquitlam area in 1996 and reelected in 2001 before quitting (basically after being appointed as Children and Families Minister which she thought would be a career killer.)  Vancouver-Point Grey was Gordon Campbell's riding.

2.I don't know that the free enterprise vs socialists has fully broken down, even if it's still in hibernation.  The NDP was able to get away with their 2017 tax increases I think due to the excesses of the Liberals previously, but being in a minority with the Green Party stopped the NDP from enacting some of their more union/socialist legislation in their first term.

3.Obviously much of their second term so far has been taken up with Covid. But, a good example I think is their forestry legislation.  They seem to be soft peddling it, publicly decrying the investments out of British Columbia that the B.C forest companies are making, but I think they clearly want to turn the forest sector over to Indigenous and local community groups who would engage in more selective forestry.

One of the reasons I think this isn't seen as the old fashioned 'free enterprise vs socialists' these days is that many on the right these days are populists who also generally prefer 'local community ownership' (however that works) over big business forest logging companies.  So, there seems to be this general agreement with those on the right and the left against big business.

It seems to be only economic centrists like me who think "nothing against this notion of community ownership and selective (old growth) logging, but can profit actually made from this?  Ultimately if the local community groups don't make money, they won't be able to invest in the upkeep of their operations.  And, can these groups sell these logs at low enough prices to secondary and tertiary operations so that those companies can remain competitive?"

So, it's kind of interesting and maybe even exciting to see this consensus on the left and the populist right, but ultimately reality will have the final say, and what happens then?

[Benjamin Frank]

Interesting background on the Canadian Conservative movement:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/under-the-big-tent-conservative-division-in-canada-1.6342930

It could have mentioned more that while John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney were both 'red Tories.'  Diefenbaker was especially in the 'progressive' wing until he embraced austerity to deal with the 1961 recession.

[Benjamin Frank]

Jean Charest, Tasha Kheiriddin and Patrick Brown?

I don't know what all the dislike here for Patrick Brown is about, it seems like he's a pretty solid and well liked mayor of Brampton as far as I can tell, and the things about him prior to that are not verified and are highly debatable.  However, it's still a bit surprising and disappointing to see not a single current more progressive Conservative M.P is considering running.

Not that they are all necessarily more progressive, but they are generally regarded as more reflective anyway, I would have thought at least one of these would run:

1.Blake Richards
2.Randy Hoback
3.Michael Chong
4.Luc Berthold/Pierre Paul Hus
5.Rob Moore

[Benjamin Frank]

Jean Charest,  Tasha Kheiriddin and Patrick Brown?

I don't know what all the dislike here for Patrick Brown is about, it seems like he's a pretty solid and well liked mayor of Brampton as far as I can tell, and the things about him prior to that are not verified and are highly debatable.  However, it's still a bit surprising and disappointing to see not a single current more progressive Conservative M.P is considering running.

Not that they are all necessarily more progressive, but they are generally regarded as more reflective anyway, I would have thought at least one of these would run:

1.Blake Richards
2.Randy Hoback
3.Michael Chong
4.Luc Berthold/Pierre Paul Hus
5.Rob Moore

On the Patrick Brown thing, it's not so much that I dislike him as much as I just think he would be one of the worst options to unite the party.

Ontario is his home turf, he has a genuine connection to the province and more name recognition here than elsewhere. But he has bad blood with much of the Conservative movement in the province, and Ford's machine would try to stop him. The prairies and the BC interior won't back a carbon tax supporter, though Metro Vancouver Tories might be more open to it. Quebec would theoretically support a moderate tory like him...oh wait, he's a very vocal opponent of Bill 21. Even Quebecers who oppose Bill 21 tend not to like non-Quebecers sticking their noses in it. Atlantic Canada is typically where moderate Tories thrive, but that makes up only 9% of federal ridings, and therefore points in the leadership election.

The allegations aside, Brown also has the characteristics of a grifter. I'm not sure he is, people can change their views over time, but he went from being a solidly so-con MP under Harper to someone who hardly tolerated any so-con voices as PCPO leader. It's one thing to shift your views over time, it's another to change your fundamental views overnight

Thanks for the explanation.  People here use the word 'grifter' far too freely, and some of this is just politics.

For instance, in 1964 George H W Bush ran for the U.S Senate in Texas against liberal Democratic incumbent Ralph Yarborough as a 'Goldwater Conservative.'

In 1966 he ran for the House of Representative as an establishment 'country club' southern Republican. He won and was reelected in 1968 unopposed.

In 1970, he ran for the U.S Senate in Texas again, but ran against conservative Democrat Lloyd Bentsen who defeated Yarborough in the Democratic Primary. This time, George H W Bush appealed to Democrats as being to the left of Bentsen.  

Edit to add: In this, I don't think the right term for these sorts of politicians is 'grifters.' On the T.V show 'Yes, Minister' there was an episode where it was Hacker who was trying to stop Sir Humphrey from accomplishing something: having the British publicly owned chemical manufacturing company produce propanol using 'metadioxin' (don't bother looking 'metadioxin' up, it doesn't exist.)  

Despite the jobs, voters in the riding where the plant that would produced it was located were concerned because there had been deaths in Italy when there was a breakdown of a proponol plant. However, 'metadioxin' was, in the episode, an inert compound.  Of course, Hacker found a way to block the plant from producing it.

The main point of the character's goals being inverted was, I think, to show how much easier it is for governments to stop things than to do things, however, in the episode, Sir Humphrey tells Hacker that Hacker knows there is no safety risk in producing the chemical only a political risk, and that only politicians who worry about 'climbing the greasy pole, worry about political risk.'

Humphrey asks Hacker: "Why must you climb the greasy pole?" And Hacker responds "Because it's there."

I think that is a much better term here than 'grifter.'

Patrick Brown, George H. W Bush, these sorts of 'career politicians' are 'greasy pole climbers.'

Yes Minister S02E4 The Greasy Pole
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5v4ri2

This is the only error I've found in the book version of Yes, Minister.  In the book, Hacker's educational background is described as 'M.S - Economics.'  Yet, when he is asked in the episode "what does inert mean?" - Metadioxin, unlike dioxin is completely inert - he doesn't know.  I initially studied economics with a B.S in mind rather than a B.A, and I still remember that 'inert' means 'non-reactive.' It's hard to believe Hacker, if he had studied any chemistry (or physics) at all, wouldn't have remembered that.

The pedantic Bernard Woolly replies "wouldn't 'ert a fly."

This is also the episode with the classic scene on 'how to discredit a report without reading it.'  

I'm sure the good politicians, lobbyists and activists have all memorized this scene.

[Benjamin Frank]

Conservatives release rules on leadership race.  Despite the headline, I think the last date the convention can be held is September 10, not that it will be held on September 10.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8655890/conservatives-leadership-september-otoole/

This is a victory for the opponents of Pierre Polievre as Polievre wanted the convention to be held by July the latest.

I gather this date is for just after Labour Day and for just before the sitting of the next Parliamentary session, however, for what it's worth, I would have suggested one month later as this is still during summer and most Canadians probably won't be paying attention. Leaving Covid aside, it's a bit odd for the Conservatives to complain about last years' late summer election only to hold their leadership race in late summer.

Michael Chong still expressing interest in running, as are Patrick Brown, Jean Charest and Peter MacKay.  Is this something of a 'Progressive Conservative' tag team?

[Benjamin Frank]

Mark Strahl has endorsed Pierre Polievre.  I might have thought he would have endorsed Leslyn Lewis.

[Benjamin Frank]

Charest and Brown will be explicitly allied with a preference deal and non-aggression pact, as befits mentor and mentee.

Somebody needs to post a photoshopped picture of Charest and Brown wearing tag team wrestling outfits.

[Benjamin Frank]

I have a question, how could Brown get to the final round without Charest flopping and Lewis/Poilievre underperforming?

If Brown overperforms in the GTA, that is 52 ridings.

In regards to the Patrick Brown scandal, it seems he's been mostly cleared and CTV has admitted that its sensational reports were factually wrong in a number of areas. (There are still some serious allegations that he denies but the women in question stand by.)

https://thepointer.com/article/2022-03-09/ctv-regrets-errors-in-report-that-led-to-ouster-of-patrick-brown-as-pc-leader-questions-still-loom-over-allegations-that-remain-in-publicly-available-stories

[Benjamin Frank]

Early polling suggests Skippy will get the crazies back into the Tory fold, but has no room to grow amongst blue Liberals. Charest's numbers among blue Liberals are slightly better, but not particularly encouraging.

I think Tories realistically need Liberal unpopularity to be high enough if they want to unite various sides and I don't see that at this point.  By nature more Canadians lean towards Liberals than Tories so all things equal, Liberals have natural advantage.  Its why over past century, Liberals have spent 2/3 of time in government and Tories 1/3 and usually Liberal time in office is quite a bit longer than Tory ones.  History would suggest we are a long ways from change.  If last as long as Chretien/Martin, then change would happen in 2028.  If as long as Pearson/Trudeau then not until 2036 or if as long as King/St. Laurent not until 2037.  Note I doubt it takes until 2036 or 2037 for Tories to win but just saying if you look at history, if Liberals were to lose next election it would be shortest time in office.

Yes if we look at how long most Tory ones are different story as for Mulroney and Harper it would be in 2024 so right around when next election happens and for Diefenbaker it would have been 2021 and 2020 for RB Bennett. 

By same token, Laurier is last PM to win four elections in a row (Trudeau sr, did win four but only three in a row, lost to Joe Clark then won in 1980) so that is one thing Tories have in their favour but my guess is Freeland not Trudeau will be Liberal leader next election.

The Liberals did win 5 majorities in a row from 1935-1957 under King/St.Laurent.

From 1935-1984 the Liberals were the government for all but approximately 7 years, and from 1922-1984 the Liberals were the government for all but approximately 12 years.

[Benjamin Frank]

 According to wiki, a business person from Saskatchewan named Joseph Borgault, the President and Co-General Manager of Tilage Tools and the President of "Canadians for Truth" entered the Conservative leadership race on March 9.

https://www.josephbourgault.com/about

[Benjamin Frank]

British Columbia M.P Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge) withdrew his endorsement of Pierre Polievre and announced on Twitter he is running for the leadership himself.

https://twitter.com/marcdalton/status/1505593852106846211

[Benjamin Frank]

How many Tories will run? I would have been surprised to hear that the number of candidates is like 2017's amount and not like 2020.

Keep in mind that, even in 2020, the initial count of candidates was larger than the final four. There was a strict fundraising threshold some of the smaller candidates weren't able to meet and were forced to drop out (in Poilievre's case, I'm sure he could have made the threshold, he just chose to withdraw his short-lived run). And at least one candidate, Richard Décarie, was barred from running due to homophobic remarks.

In other words, I don't think all of the eight contenders will be able to raise the $100,000 (?) to get on the ballot in time. In the end, it could very well winnow down to Poilievre, Charest, Brown and Lewis.

It will probably be more than that.  Keep in mind that the Conservatives suspended the leadership race last time when Covid struck and the candidates abided by that, and then when the put the race back on, they didn't really give any of the candidates any more time to raise the money to meet the entry fee. 

[Benjamin Frank]

Business consultant Bobby Singh is running for the leadership. 

https://bobbysingh.ca/

He was one of those who tried to run for the leadership in 2020 but dropped out with the suspension of the campaign due to Covid.

Whether he actually makes the ballot is, of course, another matter.  I guess when it comes to finding out who met all the criteria to make the ballot, we won't know until Bobby Singhs.  (Because I'm sure nobody with the last name Singh has ever heard that one before.)

[Benjamin Frank]

Leona Alleslev makes 10

Leona Alleslev launches Conservative leadership bid website as race heats up
https://globalnews.ca/news/8706243/leona-alleslev-launches-conservative-leadership-bid-website/

[Benjamin Frank]

As usual, Bryan Breguet is an idiot (I don't want to seem mean, but the man is an arrogant bully online, and is often, very, very wrong on things, and isn't willing to admit it). The Tories already have most of the rural ridings outside Quebec. And the ones they don't have are less "rural" and more "remote", which comes with it an entirely different political history. Granted, remote areas are trending more populist, which helps the Conservatives, especially with a weaker PPC. But they still need to do well in the 905, and that should still be their main target in every election. Can't win without it.

And he's of course predicting Pierre Poilievre - a similar personality type - leads the Conservatives to a majority in 2025.  Given that I detest PP's politics, the fact that Breguet is wrong about pretty much everything makes me feel reassured.  

I'm surprised more people haven't pointed out the, what I think are, obvious similarities betweeen Pierre Polievre and Jason Kenney.  Both of them are 'scorched earth' type politicians who seem to have a pathological need to demonize their opponents.  

If anything Kenney strikes me as being slightly more appealing than Polievre: he seems to be slightly smoother than Polievre (although Kenney's positive comments are usually mawkish), and was, at least in the federal cabinet, regarded as a capable minister with an interest in policy. Polievre in the federal cabinet seemed to be all about using his ministries for partisan political purposes.

I appreciate that Republicans in the U.S seem to be primarily interested in communications and not at all interested in governing, and, with Polievre, this sadly seems to be the same direction that many Canadian Conservatives also seem interested in going.

[Benjamin Frank]

Lawyer and 2021 York Centre candidate Joel Etienne is running for the leadership.

https://joeletienne.ca/

Whether he actually makes the ballot is, of course, another matter.  I guess when it comes to finding out who met all the criteria to make the ballot, we won't know until Joel Etienne.  (Alright, so it doesn't make sense, but I'll use it for any fringe candidate.)

[Benjamin Frank]

Per wiki, a senior non profit international aid director and former lawyer named Grant Abraham has thrown his hat into the ring.  Abraham is a Canadian citizen but ran for the U.K Conservative Party in Northern Ireland in 2019.

His campaign website: https://www.canadaspromise.com/