Leslyn Lewis campaign hits Saskatchewan

REGINA - The federal Conservative leadership campaign of Leslyn Lewis is scheduled to be in Saskatchewan Thursday and Friday.

The Lewis campaign is set to hold a meet and greet event at Sandman Hotel & Suites in Regina, followed by an event in Saskatoon at the Travelodge Hotel by Wyndham on Circle Drive at 7 p.m. in the evening. 

The campaign is then scheduled to go to Lloydminster on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Agricultural Exhibition Association - Dick Jones Sales Pavilion.

Lewis, MP for Haldimand-Norfolk is one of five candidates vying for the Conservative leadership, the others being Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest, Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber. Poilievre has held events previously in both Regina and Saskatoon and both Charest and Aitchison have campaigned in Saskatchewan in recent weeks, with Aitchison spending time in Estevan.

Recently, the federal Conservatives announced that Patrick Brown was disqualified from the race over campaign violations. Brown has since announced he is running for re-election for Mayor of Brampton. 

Lewis has been in the news this week over the recent announcement by the Leadership Election Organizing Committee that they will be holding another official Conservative leadership debate on Aug. 3 in Ottawa. The party is also issuing fines of $50,000 to campaigns refusing to participate.

Already the Poilievre campaign has announced they are not participating. This week, Lewis issued a statement in which she expressed reluctance about participating if the event consisted of topics already covered at previous debates.

In an open letter to the election committee on July 27, Lewis outlined a list of questions that “everyday Conservatives have been asking” at her campaign events. Her list of questions including ones on issues such as adverse reactions to COVID vaccines, on whether they will call an inquiry on the pandemic response, and on the abortion issue.

“If we are not going to address these topics, I don’t see how I can justify anything other than going straight to the members myself to answer their questions,” Lewis stated.