CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - The Progressive Conservative party has approved the candidacy of five contenders for its upcoming leadership race.
Kevin Arsenault, Allan Dale, Shawn Driscoll, Dennis King and Sarah Stewart-Clark were all approved by the party’s candidate evaluation committee. A leadership convention will be held on Feb. 9 at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.
Each candidate will have a spending limit of $25,000 and will be required to abide by provincial election financing rules. Voting will be held both online and in-person at the Eastlink Centre.
At this stage in the race, many have acknowledged Dennis King as the frontrunner.
King, a well-known storyteller and performer, was a communications officer in the Pat Binns government in the 1990s. A kick-off event for King’s leadership campaign drew a crowd of close to 200 at Kings Playhouse in Georgetown on Nov. 21.
But King’s leadership bid has also attracted controversy. Candidate Shawn Driscoll has written a letter to PC president Charles Blue raising concerns about former PC caucus chief of staff Adam Ross, who is currently working with the King campaign.
Driscoll, who worked as a staffer with former Conservative MP Gail Shea, said Ross’s involvement in the leadership race raises questions about the impartiality of the party’s leadership process. Driscoll said Ross helped establish the rules of the leadership race and was the “point person” in setting up meetings with the company that would run the campaign’s electronic voting process.
“It’s not just me who is voicing these concerns,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll said at least one another candidate has sent a letter to party president Charles Blue outlining concerns with Ross’s role with the King campaign.
Ross has resigned from his position with caucus.
Michael Drake, a member of the party’s leadership convention committee, said the party has established a dispute resolution committee to look into the concerns raised by Driscoll.
"We make a final decision on the complaints that come in, which will all, of course, be considered on their merits, with an eye at all times to ensuring a fair process that's got integrity to it and credibility,” Drake said.
The committee is composed of Drake, PC vice-president Suzi DeBlois and lawyer Kerri Carpenter. The findings of the committee will not be made public, said Drake.
Both Stewart-Clark and Dale declined to comment publicly about the concerns raised by Driscoll.
Dale, a retired naval officer, has said his priority is to rebuild trust in the PC party and to build confidence in the political system. Stewart-Clark, an associate professor at Dalhousie, has emphasized her past work as an advocate for women and for marginalized Islanders.
The leadership contest began after PC leader James Aylward announced in September that he would be stepping down. At the time, Aylward said he had failed to make a strong enough connection with Islanders.
Related:
