By Trish Audette
Penny Collenette says her decision not to seek the Liberal nomination in Ottawa Centre stems in part from her wish for the federal party to move forward united.
“In a political sense I think it’s time to turn a page on old wars in the party,” she said Tuesday during a telephone interview from just outside Montreal.
The 53-year-old wife of Transport Minister David Collenette and long-time supporter of Prime Minister Jean Chretien was at a language training seminar this week.
Collenette said she made her decision not to run for the seat recently vacated by Mac Harb about three weeks ago.
However, she wanted to talk to prime-minister-in-waiting Paul Martin before announcing whether or not she would run – and it took nearly two weeks for Martin and Collenette to touch base. They spoke Monday.
She said she wanted to quash rumours that Ottawa Centre could be a micro-forum for the Martin-Chretien power clash.
“The issues I’m concerned about are governance issues … I wanted to speak beyond this war.”
Richard Mahoney, an Ottawa business lawyer, who said last month he would pursue the Liberal nomination for the riding, is a committed Martin supporter. He could not be reached for comment.
Ultimately, however, Collenette said her decision came down to the number of responsibilities she is already shouldering. She is a senior fellow at the Centre of Business and Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, an executive-in-residence at the University of Ottawa and a vice-president at Holt Renfrew.
“At the end, it was a really personal decision rather than a political one,” she said.
Collenette also said she has dreamed of sitting in the House of Commons since she was 13, but declined to say whether she would seek election in the future.