This fall, the federal Progressive Conservative party will select its fourth leader in five years and one familiar Alberta face could be in the running.
For the first time, the leader will be selected by a vote of individual members rather than through the hoopla of a national delegate convention.
By the end of April, the PC national executive says it will announce the date of the leadership vote and election.
Last week in Ottawa, Conservatives were reporting that a group supporting former Tory prime minister Joe Clark is testing the political waters to gauge support for a Clark campaign.
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Alberta Conservative premier Ralph Klein, who was being pressured to run to undermine the Reform party’s political hold on much of the West, has said he will not be a candidate.
Empty seat
The Conservative leadership became vacant in early April when leader Jean Charest left federal and Conservative political circles to run for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal party.
New Brunswick MP Elsie Wayne will be interim leader until a permanent replacement is found. Brandon Tory MP Rick Borotsik, the only Conservative elected west of Toronto, has been appointed chair of the House of Commons caucus.
This summer, the party will be promoting the chance to vote for the leader as an enticement to sell memberships in the struggling party.
The new leader will face some formidable challenges trying to rebuild the party, pay down a large debt and fend off Reform attempts to replace the Tories as Canada’s right-wing alternative.
Five years ago, the PCs had been nine years in power and were at the end of a strong, second-term majority government.
They were decimated in the 1993 election, returning just two seats. One election later, they have 19 Commons seats, a debt of more than $10 million and no leader.
The next leader will be 18th in the party’s 130-year history. Four of those will have served during the five years since summer 1993 – Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Charest and the leader who emerges from the fall membership vote.
