Candidates


Find all the info you need on the 2020 Conservative leadership candidates here!
To see the entry requirements, click here.

Approved Applicant

Marilyn Gladu

Rudy Husny

Jim Karahalios

Leslyn Lewis
Rick Peterson
Derek Sloan

Authorized Contestant

Erin O’Toole

Verified Candidate

Peter MacKay

Peter MacKay

Verified Candidate

Peter MacKay is a father, husband, lawyer and is running to be the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. From 1997 to 2015, Peter served as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Central Nova. He previously served his community as a Crown Prosecutor and public defender.

In Parliament, Peter served as Canada’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Canada’s second longest serving Minister of National Defence. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada under The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper.

Peter currently serves on numerous volunteer boards and not for profits including the National Board of Special Olympics Canada, Boost Child Youth Advocacy Centre and Wounded Warriors Canada, and also supports Children’s Aid Society, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Dalhousie and Acadia Universities, and the Canada-United States Law Institute.

Peter played a historic role in the reunification of the Conservative movement in Canada. Peter’s signature is one of the two signatures on the founding documents of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is running for leader to keep the Conservative movement united and to defeat Justin Trudeau in the next general election.

Erin O’Toole

Authorized Contestant

Erin Michael O’Toole was born in Montreal. His father worked for General Motors in Sainte-Thérèse, QC before a transfer to GM Oshawa. O’Toole enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces at 18 and attended the Royal Military College. Over the course of his 12 years in the military, O’Toole sailed with the Royal Canadian Navy as part of a Sea King helicopter detachment, participated in search and rescue, fishery patrols and other missions as a tactical co-ordinator (TACCO) and participated in Operation Persistence following the crash of SwissAir Flight 111.

During his decade in the private sector as a corporate lawyer he worked as in-house legal counsel for the world’s largest consumer good company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and in private practice with the national law firm of Heenan Blaikie LLP. O’Toole is one of the founders of the True Patriot Love Foundation (TPL), the largest Canadian charity dedicated to serving veterans and military families across Canada. He has been elected 3 times in his GTA riding of Durham. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade working on trade deals in Europe, Asia and South America. He was promoted to Minister of Veterans Affairs, a file plagued by waiting lists, lawsuits and eroding trust. O’Toole used his experience to bring together a team to turn the department around in the final year of the Harper government.

O’Toole, 47, has been married to his wife Rebecca for 19 years and they have two children, Mollie & Jack.

Marilyn Gladu

Approved Applicant

M.P. Gladu has represented the riding of Sarnia-Lambton in Parliament since her election in 2015. She served as the Official Opposition Science Critic, as well as the Chair for the Status of Women, as well as the Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Rail Caucus, in addition to the Vice-Chair of the Aerospace Caucus. She was also the Shadow Minister of Health, and the Vice Chair of the Standing Committee on Health. As one of the most respected leading members of the current Parliament, Marilyn works cooperatively and respectfully with her parliamentary peers, having been named “The Most Collegial Parliamentarian” by all party members of parliament in 2016.

A professional chemical engineer by training and profession, M.P. Gladu has had a broad range of experience in her 32-year career, including global work in the energy sector, plastics, building construction, automotive, mining, nuclear, the bio-industry and medical products industry. She worked for Dow Chemical for 21 years both domestically and globally, before becoming the Engineering Manager, and subsequently, the Director of Engineering at Suncor. From there, she became a business director as a consultant at WorleyParsons.

She was recently named as a prestigious “Fellow” by the Canadian Academy of Engineers and Engineers Canada. She is the first female engineer to be elected to the House of Commons.
A special moment in her early political career is her private members’ bill, C-277 (on palliative care) receiving unanimous consent of the House of Commons and Senate.

Rudy Husny

Approved Applicant

As a proud Quebecer and Canadian, Rudy has been a long-time member of the Conservative Party and his roots in the party are deep. He has been a candidate for the Conservative Party twice, was a senior advisor in Prime Minister Harper’s government and most recently helped the party in opposition. With extensive experience in both the private and public sector, at home and abroad, Rudy knows that our party’s and our country’s best days lie ahead.

Rudy worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Montreal, supporting small and medium sized businesses and helping to reach their full potential. In 2010, he jumped into politics as the Conservative candidate in the riding of Outremont, where he ran twice – 2011 & 2015.

This eventually led him to Ottawa, where he served as a senior advisor to the Minister of International Trade in the Harper Government from 2011 to 2015. In this capacity, he participated in more than 50 trade missions, including to China and India, and in the negotiations of the historic Canada-European Union, South Korea and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pacts.

Following this, Rudy gained international exposure by working as a senior executive for a large multi-industry distributor and manufacturer in the Gulf region.

Rudy holds a degree in Business Administration and a Graduate Diploma in Accounting from HEC Montreal.

Jim Karahalios

Approved Applicant

Jim Karahalios is married to Belinda Karahalios, the Ontario PC MPP for Cambridge. They live in Cambridge, Ontario with their young son, Victor. Jim is a lawyer with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering - one focusing on environmental engineering.

In Jim’s career, he has led the successful turnaround of a small health care business, worked as a vice president of an international construction company, and as a lawyer and consultant in private practice, Jim has advised clients in industries including construction and manufacturing.

In 2017, Jim started the Axe the Carbon Tax campaign that changed the political narrative in Canada by uniting conservative leaders against Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax.

By November 2017, the Ontario PC Party under the leadership of Red Tory Patrick Brown, sued Jim in a lawsuit designed to silence his advocacy against carbon taxes and against voter fraud that occurred in Ontario PC Party nominations. Against the odds and with great sacrifice by his family, Jim won in court when the lawsuit was ruled as strategic litigation against public participation. Jim is currently suing the Ontario PC Party in another lawsuit, this time over allegations of voter fraud occurring in an election for party president.

Jim is a fighter.
Red Tory Patrick Brown learned that when Jim beat him in court and when the Ontario PC government scrapped the “cap-and-trade” carbon tax as a result of Jim’s campaign.
Jim needs your help to stop the Red Tory coronation in the Conservative Party leadership race.

Leslyn Lewis

Approved Applicant

It has been said that to whom much is given, much is expected. I am running to be the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada because Canadians can and should expect much more from their leaders.

I came to Canada when I was five years old. The values of Canada and Canadians – generosity, fair opportunity, rewarding hard work – enabled me to realize all the dreams of my immigrant parents. I achieved a Bachelors Degree from the University of Toronto, Trinity College graduating Magna Cum Laude, a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University, an MBA Concentration in Business and Environment from the Schulich School of Business and a Juris Doctorate from Osgoode Hall Law School and a PhD in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. Our values and democratic institutions were the foundation for my success as a mother, lawyer, teacher and community advocate. 

As a party volunteer for over 20 years, I have held a variety of roles including fundraising. In 2015 I was honoured to be asked by the party to be a candidate in the middle of the election when a crisis happened.

And now much is required in return. I am running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada because I see these opportunities for future generations falling away and I see our values being undermined – even within our own Party.

Rick Peterson

Approved Applicant

Rick Peterson believes it’s time to be bold.

As President of Edmonton-based Peterson Capital, Rick has more than 30 years experience in Canada’s investment industry.

He believes the next 10 years are the most exciting years in Canada’s history — with potential for tremendous growth and optimism.

We live in an age of creative disruption, where companies like Shopify can become multi-billion dollar success stories overnight.

Rick has embraced that creative and entrepreneurial spirit, and throughout his professional career, has worked to make Canada the most disruptive place on earth. His firm has worked tirelessly to turn Canadian companies into Canadian success stories.

He’s entered this leadership race for one reason: he believes his bold ideas can supercharge our economic growth and make Canada a world leader in the 21st century.

Rick is a lifelong Conservative volunteer, campaign worker, fundraiser and EDA board member. He also founded Suits and Boots, a national non-profit group of investment industry professionals who support Canada’s resource sector workers and their families.

Rick is fluently bilingual, and a graduate of University of Alberta and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, France.

Prior to his career in finance, Rick worked as a journalist in Alberta, and played professional hockey in France for 10 years.

Rick and his wife, Irish, live in Edmonton with their three Golden Retrievers, Smooch, Beau and Olive.

Derek Sloan

Approved Applicant

Derek Sloan is a Member of Parliament for Hastings-Lennox & Addington in Ontario. He is a lawyer, husband to Jennifer, and father of Fiona (6), Callum (4), and Nora (3). He was involved in the first Trinity Western University case in BC in 2015. He attended law school at Queen’s University after owning and operating several small businesses in the Oshawa area.

Derek is a Conservative without apology. As leader, Derek will encourage MPs to vigorously discuss and debate any issue. Derek will never make anyone apologize for being a Conservative. He will encourage members to speak the truth no matter how uncomfortable it makes the increasingly politically correct culture.

Conservatives have been playing it safe for far too long, focusing on narrow economic issues which, though important, don’t begin to cover the gamut of our national and social needs. Whatever the issue, Conservatives have the answers.

Our approach to National Defence will be realistic, not ideological. Our approach to immigration will be practical, not platitudinal. Our approach to the environment will be reasonable, not radical.

Derek is standing for the leadership because our country is under siege by a tide of political correctness that seeks to destroy Canada, and he knows that the quickest way to lose such a war is to pretend you’re not in one.

Derek is here to take a stand for Canada against radical progressivism. If you’re a Conservative without apology too, join us.