Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, right, speaks during a fireside chat with True North journalist Andrew Lawton during the Canada Strong and Free Network event in Ottawa, on April 12.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Pierre Poilievre’s biographer is seeking to join the caucus of the federal Conservative Leader he has written about, another high-profile candidate hoping to be nominated as the party continues to hold a strong lead in public-opinion polls.
“I’ve known and covered Pierre Poilievre for years – I literally wrote the book on him – and believe his approach and ideas are what the country needs to move forward,” said Andrew Lawton, who announced his bid for a Conservative nomination this week on his show on True North, a conservative digital platform.
The London, Ont., resident wants to be the Conservative candidate in the riding of Elgin-St. Thomas-London South. The riding replaces Elgin-Middlesex-London, held since 2015 by Conservative Karen Vecchio, who has announced she is not seeking re-election.
“There’s an appetite for change and with the stakes this high I couldn’t spend the next election on the sidelines,” Mr. Lawton, the author of Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life, said in an e-mail exchange.
In 2021, Ms. Vecchio won the riding with 49 per cent of the vote, compared with 19 per cent for her nearest rival, the Liberal candidate.
Political scientist Alex Marland said in an interview that in some ridings, the real fight will be the nomination battle, not the actual election. Many ridings are either safe Conservative seats or trending for a change to the Conservatives, according to public-opinion polling.
“It’s a lot more palatable to try to win the nomination contest if you think you have a chance of winning the election after the fact,” said Prof. Marland, the Jarislowsky chair in trust and political leadership at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.
The upside for the Conservatives, he said, is candidates are being vetted by the party well ahead of the next election, while political parties that are having a harder time attracting candidates will have to do the vetting work in more of a rush as an election draws closer.
Prof. Marland said the momentum of the Conservatives increases pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the Liberals having to replace its members who rule out running again.
Mr. Lawton’s bid comes as others are seeking Conservative nominations, positioning themselves to run in a federal election expected in the fall of 2025.
In Ottawa, former local CTV anchor Carol Anne Meehan, also a former Ottawa city councillor, is seeking the Conservative nomination in Ottawa West-Nepean. Liberal Anita Vandenbeld won the riding with 45 per cent of the vote in the 2021 election. The Conservative candidate garnered 28 per cent.
Ms. Meehan announced her bid in a post on X, criticizing the Liberal government for such measures as increasing the capital gains tax and the federal carbon tax. Three other candidates, all with experience as staffers on Parliament Hill, are also seeking the nomination: Ryan Telford, Jennifer Jennekens, and Ashti Waissi.
In Prince Edward Island, former provincial cabinet minister Doug Currie has announced a bid to run for the Conservative nomination in the riding of Charlottetown. He was the party’s candidate in the 2021 election but lost to Liberal Sean Casey.
In Saskatchewan, former provincial cabinet minister Steven Bonk, first elected in 2016, bowed out of seeking re-election in this year’s provincial election to go after the federal Conservative nomination in Souris-Moose Mountain. His is competing against Mike Strachan, the mayor of the village of Torquay, for the nod.
Conservative MP Robert Kitchen, first elected in 2015, opened up the nomination when he said last month that he isn’t running again. In the 2021 election, Mr. Kitchen won with 76 per cent of the vote. His nearest rival was the candidate for the People’s Party of Canada, with 9 per cent.
The Conservative Party did not respond to questions about party nominations.
Parker Lund, a spokesperson for the Liberal Party of Canada, said in a statement that the party has nominated 101 candidates so far. There are 338 seats in the House of Commons.
NDP national director Lucy Watson said the party has so far nominated 50 candidates, with seven nomination meetings scheduled for coming weeks.
Ms. Watson noted in a statement that the candidates include municipal leaders such as Colin Plant, a councillor from the Vancouver Island community of Saanich, who is challenging Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, the incumbent in Saanich-Gulf Islands. Former Halifax MLA Lisa Roberts is also running for the NDP.
Fred Delorey, who served as national campaign manager for the Conservative Party in 2021, said nomination contests are a great way to battle-test prospective candidates, to see if they can build teams, raise money and run a good campaign.
In an e-mail exchange, Mr. Delorey said the excitement among Conservatives right now is akin to the years ahead of Stephen Harper leading the party to power in 2006.
“A lot of people were excited to run for the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper then, but now the excitement feels even stronger,” he wrote.