Alberta Premier Backs O’Toole in Conservative Leadership Race

(Bloomberg) -- Alberta’s premier is backing Erin O’Toole’s campaign to lead the Conservative Party against Justin Trudeau.

Jason Kenney, who served with the Ontario lawmaker in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, issued his endorsement Thursday, a week after the initial list of candidates was finalized.

“Erin O’Toole respects the breadth of our big tent coalition,” Kenney said in a statement. “Every conservative would be welcome in a party led by Erin.”

In a direct jibe to the other front-runner in the race, former Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Kenney added: “No one will have their deeply-held beliefs dismissed as ‘stinking albatrosses’ under Erin O’Toole’s leadership.”

During last year’s election campaign, MacKay used that nautical allusion to criticize outgoing leader Andrew Scheer’s social conservatism.

Scheer, who failed to defeat Trudeau in the vote despite a series of scandals tarnishing the prime minister, announced his resignation in December. The party will vote on a new leader in June.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Wicary in Ottawa at swicary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier

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