Manitoba Progressive Conservatives will have new leader by next spring as race officially kicks off

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Peggy

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives say they’ll know who their next party leader will be by the end of next April.

The Official Opposition party announced the timeline and official start of its leadership race at a news conference outside party headquarters Thursday.

Nomination forms will be available for potential candidates as of Friday, and the party will begin accepting them starting next Tuesday.

That will start a race that will see the party’s next leader announced at a convention on April 26, 2025.

The deadline for candidates to make submissions is Oct. 15, and an all-candidates leadership forum is scheduled for Oct. 30 in Winnipeg.

Manitoba residents who have a Progressive Conservative membership by Feb. 28 will be able to cast a ballot. The deadline for mail-in ballots is April 18.

The leadership race is “an exciting time of renewal for our party,” said Brad Zander, the chair of the party’s leadership election committee, in a Thursday news release.

He promised the committee “will ensure a fair and transparent contest.”

The party has been led by Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko on an interim basis since former premier Heather Stefanson stepped down from the role in January.

She announced her intention to step down last October, after the PCs were defeated by the NDP in the provincial election.

Stefanson later also resigned as the MLA for Tuxedo. In a byelection last week, the NDP won the Winnipeg seat for the first time.

She became party leader in 2021, following the resignation of then premier Brian Pallister. The results of that leadership contest were challenged in court by her rival, Shelly Glover.

Earlier this year, the PC Party approved new leadership rules that include capping the influence of constituencies with large membership numbers.