Conservative Party leadership race could have a Brampton candidate as party sets entry deadline

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) will wait until September to pick a new leader, giving potential candidates like Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown more than a month to decide if they will run for the party’s top spot.

Brown told insauga.com publisher Khaled Iwamura last week that he is considering a run for the CPC leadership but couldn’t commit to a decision until details of the race were finalised.

The party announced on Wednesday night that candidates will have until April 19 to throw their political hats into the ring with a leadership vote scheduled for Sept. 10.

The entry fee will be $200,000, on top of a $100,000 deposit to ensure candidates comply with the rules, which will be refunded after the contest is over.

While the CPC leadership vote is in early September, Brampton is also scheduled for a municipal election in October.

Should Brown decide to run again in Brampton, the first day to file official nomination forms is May 2.

RELATED: Brampton Mayor Brown considering run for Conservative leadership

The only declared candidate in the federal Conservative leadership race so far is Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre. Other prospective candidates include Brown, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Leslyn Lewis, the Ontario MP who placed third behind former leader Erin O’Toole in the 2020 contest.

Brown became mayor of Brampton in 2018 and has previous experience in Ottawa as MP for the riding of Barrie for three terms.

He was also leader of the Progressive Conservative Party on Ontario before being replaced by Doug Ford over allegations of sexual misconduct, which the mayor has denied and were never a police matter.

Ford was elected premier some six months after Brown was ousted as provincial leader.

The CPC leadership race was triggered after a majority of Conservative MPs voted to remove O’Toole after just 18 months as leader in a secret ballot last month, with Manitoba MP Candice Bergen stepping in as interim leader.

Just hours before O’Toole was ousted as party leader, Brown said he wouldn’t “get into hypotheticals” on a leadership bid and would instead stay the course with “getting Brampton reopened.”

With files from the Canadian Press