Saskatchewan-based Andrew Scheer is the latest of a long line of candidates joining the Conservative leadership race.
The former House speaker announced he was officially in the race Wednesday at a news conference in Ottawa.
The Regina-Qu’Appelle MP enters the race with the endorsement of 17 Conservative MPs and three Senators, with several of those endorsements coming from Saskatchewan.
Among those listed on Scheer’s candidate page as endorsing him is Gerry Ritz, MP from Battlefords-Lloydminster and the former agriculture minister in the Harper government.
Not only is Ritz supporting Scheer, but so are two other MPs from the ridings bordering Battlefords-Lloydminster — Kelly Block from Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek to the east and Shannon Stubbs from Lakeland, in Alberta, to the west.
Other Saskatchewan MPs backing Scheer are Cathay Wagantall from Yorkton-Melville and Tom Lukiwski from Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan.
That means Scheer, whose campaign bills him as a “Real Conservative — Real Leader,” has the endorsement of four out of 10 Saskatchewan Conservative MPs. Two Saskatchewan-based senators, Denise Batters and David Tkachuk, are also backing him.
Scheer hosts a kickoff rally in Regina on Friday.
He joins what is turning into a large field of contenders in the Conservative leadership race, with the vote to take place May 27, 2017.
Several candidates have declared so far, including Kellie Leitch, Maxime Bernier, Michael Chong, Tony Clement, Deepak Obhrai, Adrienne Snow, Pierre Lemieux, Dr. Dan Lindsay and another Saskatchewan candidate Brad Trost.
Trost, whose campaign dubs him as “100% Conservative,” has staked out ground as the social conservative candidate in the race. The Saskatoon-based MP has also not been afraid to court controversy on various issues, including a week ago when he publicly compared the Ontario sex-education curriculum to residential schools at a Toronto event.
Trost made headlines again this week for publicly questioning the “fitness for office” of Chris Warkentin, the Tories’ deputy house leader, over impartiality concerns.
More potential candidates including Chris Alexander, Steven Blaney, Erin O’Toole, Lisa Raitt and well-known TV commentator Kevin O’Leary could also potentially enter the race in the coming weeks.
