For the third time in five years, the Conservative Party of Canada is looking for a new leader. 

Wednesday, the caucus voted to oust Erin O’Toole from the position he was elected into in August of 2020. Taking his place as the interim leader is Candice Bergen, who served as his deputy leader. The vote to remove O’Toole was 73-45 and was triggered by a letter with 35 signatures from Conservative MPs.  

“A vote was done by caucus, and unfortunately it has led to us going through the process of finding a new leader, and as we move forward, I think that’s the positive thing we need to take from this,” said Souris-Moose Mountain MP Dr. Robert Kitchen.  

The move to have the new leadership race is one that will see the fifth Leader of the Official Opposition since Stephen Harper stepped down following the 2015 election. Rona Ambrose filled in as the interim until Andrew Scheer was elected into the position in 2017. He then served as the leader until O’Toole was elected.  

“That public face is continuously changing,” Kitchen stated. “I felt after every one of the elections that we needed to stay with who we had as the leader at that time, and we needed to step forward so that people could get to know who that was.” 

With Bergen serving as the interim leader, the next step will be the appointment of a leadership election organizing committee by the party’s national council. From there, the discussions will be held as to when the actual leadership vote will take place. 

During the vote to elect an interim leader Wednesday night, those who had put their names forward for the position all agreed that it will be better to hold the leadership convention sooner rather than later, according to Kitchen.  

“That makes it challenging for people who may not have even thought that they were gonna (sic) put their name into the fray,” Kitchen explained. “Now, (they) have to do that in a fairly quick situation and make certain that they are in a position.” 

So far, no one has officially stepped forward announcing they will be seeking the leadership of the party, although there are already a number of names being suggested. They include MP Pierre Poilievre, MP Rona Ambrose, MP Leslyn Lewis, and the runner-up in the 2020 vote, Peter MacKay. There is one name that Kitchen knows won’t be on the ballot, however. 

“That is a very quick no,” Kitchen emphatically said when asked if he would run. “Family comes first, and that’s the most important thing to me.”