Kellie Leitch makes waves in leadership bid
Newsmaker of the Year
Immediately after winning a second term as Simcoe-Grey MP, political pundits were speculating that Kellie Leitch would go for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada and ultimately for the role of Prime Minister.
At the time, Leitch would only say she was giving it serious consideration but now it is a reality that the next Conservative Prime Minister could be a part-time resident of Clearview Township.
In April of this year, Leitch was the first person to announce that she would indeed run for the leadership.
The campaign has been making headlines ever since, starting with the news that her campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, was charged with impaired driving after a collision in Windsor that resulted in his resignation (which was obviously temporary because he is still on the job and making more headlines).
Leitch has garnered more media attention recently than any of the other 13 people running for leader. Right after the US election, Leitch came out saying president-elect Donald Trump has an exciting message, one that needs delivering in Canada. She then announced that immigrants, in her opinion, should undergo extreme vetting. The campaign rhetoric was ramped up with a continuous stream of press releases with titles such as ‘Conservative Leadership Candidate Kellie Leitch to Dismantle the CBC’, ‘Leitch announces plan to amend Criminal Code to allow mace and pepper spray as self-defence tools’; and ‘“Revenge of the Comment Section”: Kellie Leitch Launches Fundraising Push to Give a Voice to the Silent Majority’, making headlines all the while.
In November, Leitch issued a statement saying she had been notified by a volunteer in the local riding association that someone was offering up her address to anyone who was interested in doing her harm. That same weekend, her home alarm sounded two times in the early morning hours. She said the first alarm could have been triggered by an intruder but the second turned out to be a false alarm.
Most recently, through a grassroots campaign, #notmymp signs are being distributed in the riding. Although only a couple hundred signs have been printed, the story has gained a national audience through a number of newscasts, local media and two MacLean’s articles.
We have received more letters, for and against Leitch’s campaign tactics (but mostly against) than on any other topic in 2016, even though there have been many opinions put to pen on the Fairview Wind Project, quarry development and the Steer development at Cashtown Corners, just to name a few. That is why we think Kellie Leitch, possibly the future Prime Minister of Canada, is newsmaker of the year.
