Federal Conservative Party leadership hopeful Kevin O乌鸦传媒橪eary is coming to Kelowna to try and sway those eligible to vote in next month乌鸦传媒檚 leadership vote.
O乌鸦传媒橪eary, a high-profile businessman with no political experience, will appear Saturday morning at the Coast Capri Hotel to speak with party members only. The meeting is not open to the public and only card-carrying members of the Conservative Party will be allowed in, say organizers.
Organizers have also said they plan to only invite selected members of the local media.
O乌鸦传媒橪eary is the third Conservative leadership candidate to visit Kelowna, following Andrew Saxton last week and Lisa Raitt a few weeks ago. They also met with party members.
Fourteen men and women are vying to replace former leader Stephen Harper, who resigned following the Conservatives defeat in last October乌鸦传媒檚 federal election.
Recently O乌鸦传媒橪eary complained publicly all Conservative Party members are not getting the opportunity to hear from each leadership candidate because an updated list of eligible party members had not been circulated by the the party despite the cut off for voting eligibility occurring three weeks ago.
乌鸦传媒淕iven we are approaching the end of a long leadership process, I can乌鸦传媒檛 think of a more important priority for the party leadership than delivering its new expanded membership list to the 14 leadership candidates,乌鸦传媒� said O乌鸦传媒橪eary last week.
Party members eligible to vote will get their ballots next week. The election is May 27.
乌鸦传媒淭his is taking too long,乌鸦传媒� O乌鸦传媒橪eary said. 乌鸦传媒淲e are told it might be another two weeks or more before we have a full membership list, which is just far too late. All candidates need this information today, and it is in no one乌鸦传媒檚 interest that this information is being held back.乌鸦传媒�
Ken Lang, president of the Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative Party riding association, said he has seen a huge increase in memberships here乌鸦传媒攁s has the party across the country乌鸦传媒攁s a result of the leadership campaign.
While declining to release either the new number or how many members the riding association had prior to the leadership campaign, he described the increase as an 乌鸦传媒渆xplosion.乌鸦传媒�
乌鸦传媒淚t has been absolutely crazy,乌鸦传媒� said Lang.
Despite that, the lengthy Conservative leadership campaign has been a low-key affair, failing to catch fire with the general public.
O乌鸦传媒橪eary entered the race late and has skipped several of the all-candidates debates that have been held across the country.
Locally, Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola MP Dan Albas, whose riding includes West Kelowna and part of downtown Kelowna, has thrown his support behind another candidate, Quebec MP and former Conservative cabinet minister Maxime Bernier. Albas is Bernier乌鸦传媒檚 campaign co-chairman in B.C.
