Kerry Colborne will be Oakville’s Conservative candidate in a federal election widely speculated to be called in the coming weeks.
An online vote held over the weekend saw Colborne elected on a second ballot win over fellow candidates Irshad Chaudhry and Nadirah Nazeer.
The Conservative nomination was marred by dissent. The riding association’s board of directors asked the federal party to turf Chaudhry from the race because of the new-to-Oakville candidate’s refusal to participate in events and apparent lack of familiarity with local issues.
Colborne says she has spoken to the defeated candidates and is optimistic she can unite the party’s volunteers behind her candidacy in an attempt to unseat incumbent and high-profile Liberal cabinet minister Anita Anand.
A mortgage broker and owner of Force Ten Capital Management, Colborne has been involved with the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and Oakville Arts Council, as well as other community organizations.
“We said from the beginning that we needed a candidate that had community leadership, community relations and leadership skills,” she said.
“You can never say this without sounding arrogant, but we did feel that I was the candidate that brought those things to the table, and I guess the voters agreed.”
Colborne added that her campaign will “hit the ground running,” starting with a visit from Erin O’Toole, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, who will make a policy announcement at Sheridan College tomorrow.
While some have questioned the need for an election less than two years into this session of Parliament, Colborne says many people are concerned with the direction taken by the Trudeau-led minority Liberal government.
“I can tell you that there are plenty of Conservatives in Oakville that do want an election because they want a different government in power,” she said.
“Everyone is terrified with the non-stop spending and the increase in the debt.”
She also questioned the Liberal track record during the pandemic, including procurement led by Anand.
“Now we’re swimming in vaccines, but when we needed them, we didn’t have them,” she said, adding that the mix-and-match vaccine strategy is proving problematic for Canadians looking to prove vaccination status outside of the country.
“I personally think she did a terrible job. I recognize that none of us have had to manage through a pandemic, but there were a lot of missteps made along the way, and that’s her portfolio.”
The NDP will be running Jerome Adamo, an early childhood educator who ran in the 2019 federal campaign.