By Trevor Sinker
The leadership campaign for the new Conservative party has boosted membership in the Ottawa Centre riding association, say party officials.
“The timing couldn’t be better, we’ve got so many more people to help in the election process now,” says Don Cummer, a Conservative in Ottawa Centre.
Conservatives will pick their new leader March 20. The primary event will be in Toronto, but there will be voting locations across the country.
The Ottawa voting location is yet to be determined, says Tom Thompson, president of the Ottawa Centre riding association.
“There’s a very active, well organized and well financed (Conservative) group in Ottawa Centre,” says Thompson.
He says members are roughly evenly split between former Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative supporters, as well as some Liberal converts.
“We’ve got some former members of the Liberal party that have joined because they’re just frustrated with what’s going on with their former party,” says Thompson.
Thompson says there were officially 1,029 Conservative members in Ottawa Centre in the most recent tally taken Dec. 31, but added that the number has risen.
Nationally, membership in the Conservative Party is now 250,000 according to the party’s official statistics.
“The numbers are shooting up because of the leadership campaign,” says Cummer, a former member of the Progressive Conservatives.
There is plenty of energy among members, says David Brown, another Ottawa Centre Conservative. He says it is great to be working as a united conservative front.
“It was like a dream come true,” says Brown, referring to the merger between the Alliance and PC late last year.
“As a candidate in 2000 I thought it was a travesty that we were fighting each other,” says Brown, a former Tory, who ran in the last federal election as the Ottawa Centre Canadian Alliance candidate.
He adds that members from the two parties have been working together in Ottawa Centre for two years.
In the last election, the Alliance received 18 per cent of the vote in Ottawa Centre, while the PCs got approximately 13 per cent.
Cummer says while the leadership race has drawn more people into politics, riding associations will have to work hard to keep new members involved in the long term.
“The challenge, as I see it, is to make sure we reach out, contact and keep those new members involved in the months ahead,” he says.
“Now, we’ve got an excellent database to keep track of the people who want to be involved in politics.”
A list of candidates vying to represent the Conservative party in Ottawa Centre during the next election will soon be released.
Although Lowell Green, a local radio talkshow host, was rumoured to have been considering running, Thompson says he has not spoken with Green.
The association will hold its nomination meeting March 30 at Sala San Marco Banquet Hall, 215 Preston St. at 6:30 p.m. to select its candidate.