DAY TWO: Dr. Leslyn Lewis hosts Conservative leadership campaign event in Calgary

I was on location for the second night of Dr. Leslyn Lewis’ Calgary campaign trip as she makes her way across the country seeking to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Dr. Leslyn Lewis is a serious contender — I’ll once again remind you that she won the popular vote on the second ballot of the 2020 Conservative leadership race but was eliminated from contention based on the preferential ballot points system utilized in that contest.

We also covered Dr. Lewis’ first evening in Calgary at C3 Church Calgary West where a few hundred gathered to hear her speak.

We had the opportunity to join Dr. Lewis for an exclusive interview. You can catch all of our coverage from night one here.

While a few hundred were in attendance for the first evening of the event, over 1,200 reportedly registered for night two and chairs were in short supply as the evening began at the south Calgary conference hall where the event was being held.

Dr. Lewis’ demeanour on both evenings struck me as surprisingly unpolitical, and that is likely because Dr. Lewis is not a career politician, but she is a successful and highly educated lawyer and businesswoman. There is a certain no-nonsense factor about her that is not typical among politicians. You can ask her a direct question and get an answer, and many did exactly that throughout the evening.

On both evenings she delivered a similar and very succinct speech (you can watch in one of those speeches its entirety here), but she spent most of the evening engaging in an open question and answer period. As she had done on the previous night, she tackled questions on vaccine mandates, pipelines, the carbon tax, dishonest media directly and unapologetically in a way that is impossible to imagine Erin O’Toole ever doing.

While Dr. Lewis may be intelligent and beyond qualified to lead the country, some still wonder if she has the political savvy and charisma to take on other leadership contenders, nominally the likes of Pierre Poilievre. Many in attendance felt confident that she was the best person to take on Trudeau in a federal election, but they were less certain that she would be able to take the leadership of the party in order to reach that next milestone.

We chatted with folks in attendance about what drew them out to the campaign event and captured some highlights of Dr. Lewis’ speech, and question and answer period.

On the first night of Dr. Lewis’ Calgary campaigning, I saw zero mainstream media in attendance. On night two, one camera operator showed up very briefly for a quick soundbite before departing.

Rebel News is covering the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race with boots on the ground and doing real journalism across Canada as we provided unparalleled coverage of this contest to determine who will be the next contender to take on Justin Trudeau.

This is historic and we will be there to capture it all. To ensure you don’t miss a thing, check in daily at LeadershipReports.ca.