Former Conservative leadership aspirant Leona Alleslev eyeing return to Parliament

OTTAWA — Former ranking Conservative MP Leona Alleslev said she will vie to run under the party banner again in the next election.

The former MP of six years and one-time leadership hopeful is throwing her hat in the ring for the party nomination in Kingston and the Islands.

“I have unfinished business in the House of Commons to try to make Canada a more secure, more prosperous, more united country,” she said.

The former air force officer had formerly represented the GTA seat of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, but said she has long wanted to return to her hometown of Kingston, where she grew up as part of a military family.

“I thought perhaps I was finished with politics, but my husband is close to retirement and our kids are grown up, and so we’re now in a position to look at choosing where we want to live, rather than having to live where we are for other reasons.”

Alleslev was originally swept into office in 2015 under the Liberal banner, but crossed the floor to the Tories in 2018 ahead of the election, criticizing how the governing Liberals were handling the economy and foreign affairs.

She was re-elected as a Conservative in 2019 and became deputy leader under former leader Andrew Scheer, but lost her seat in 2021 to Liberal MP Leah Taylor Roy.

Alleslev had supported Peter McKay in his 2020 leadership bid.

She later announced her own run for the party leadership in 2022, in the race where current leader Pierre Poilievre won his decisive victory.

Alleslev, however, had to quickly bow out because she did not raise enough funds to clear the entrance bar. She said she had entered the race at too late a stage to meet the deadline.

She’ll be facing off in this nomination battle against Jarrod Stearns, chair of the Kingston Police Services Board. Local media have also reported speculation that Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson may also compete for the position.

Poilievre has soared far ahead in the polls for more than the past year, with such a massive lead that the numbers suggest his party could be swept into office in a wave next year, if fortunes don’t start to turn around for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Even still, whoever wins the party mantle in Kingston may not have an easy fight ahead.

That riding has been locked down as a Liberal seat since 1988, when then up-and-comer Peter Milliken defeated former PC cabinet minister Flora MacDonald.

Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen has firmly gripped the seat since Trudeau’s ascent to power in 2015.

“To be able to have the opportunity to work in the best interest of Canada and help Mark Gerretsen seek opportunities elsewhere would be a great honour,” Alleslev said.

A date is not yet set for the nomination race.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2024.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press