A man with ties to Abbotsford has declared his intention to enter the leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada.
Grant Abraham, a 1986 Abbotsford secondary senior grad, hosted an official campaign launch in Calgary on April 1. He also hosted events in Chilliwack on April 5 and Abbotsford on April 6. He plans to host another meet and greet event in Langley on April 10.
According to his website, after graduating from high school he completed a bachelor’s degree in business and english from Langley’s Trinity Western University and a law degree from Queen’s University in Belfast.
He served as a lawyer for five years and has spent the last 20 years working internationally mostly in a consulting role. His most recent employment role was with Power to Change in Langley (concluding in late-2021) where he served as the CEO of the Global Aid Network.
Abraham’s first foray into politics occurred in 2019 when he ran as a Conservative MP candidate in the Strangford parliamentary constituency of Northern Ireland. He finished fifth out of eight candidates and earned 1,476 votes (3.9 per cent). That was an increase of 2.6 per cent from what the Conservatives received in 2017.
He currently serves as the third vice-president of the Abbotsford Conservative Electoral District Association. He was named to that role on March 27, 2021.
He stated that he is concerned about the direction Canada is taking and also feels that the Conservatives, who have been unsuccessful the last two elections, could use some new voices.
“Canada is in a place that it should not be,” he stated in his campaign launch YouTube video. “I hear this question all across the country - what has happened to our country? The answer is that the Liberal government has rolled out a new social contract that we have not agreed to. No one wants to live in a politically correct dictatorial state that has sold its soul out to global governments.”
Abraham added that a Conservative government winning a majority government is a way to prevent his worries from continuing. He has received an endorsement from the Hamilton-based Campaign Life Coalition. They are a socially conservative group which oppose abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, assisted reproductive technologies, same-sex marriage, and gender identity legislation.
There are six current approved candidates in the Conservative leadership race - Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, Patrick Brown, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis and Pierre Poilievre.
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In order for a candidate to be approved for the race a hopeful must complete the filing documents consisting of: the leadership contestant questionnaire, the first instalment of the registration fee ($50,000), a written endorsement that the campaign will follow the party’s code of conduct and a completed contact document.
A contestant must also have signed nomination forms of at least 500 members of the party who reside in 30 or more electoral districts in at least seven provinces. The total fee for candidate registration is $200,000 and must be paid in full by 2 p.m. PST on April 29.
The new leader is set to be chosen on Sept. 10.
For more information on Abraham, visit canadaspromise.com.