3-way race for PC leadership, as nominations close

Nominations for the Progressive Conservative Party's leadership race have closed, with threepeople stepping forward to lead Newfoundland and Labrador's official opposition.

David Brazil has been interim leader since March 2021. A new leader will be chosen at the party's leadership convention in October.

Three people are officially candidates, according to a press release from the party on Friday afternoon:Eugene Manning, Lloyd Parrott and Tony Wakeham.

Manning, a former president of the party, announced his intention to run in February. Manning left the role of president in April 2021, citing concerns about a lack of neutrality in picking a new leader after Ches Crosbie resigned.

Manning, the founder of a Newfoundland-based civil construction firm, is running onthe platform of improving health care and access to child care, addressing the cost of living andrising crime rates and fixing what he calls a failing Crown lands system.

Parrott, the PC MHA for Terra Nova, was the first person to put his name forward,in July 2022. Parrott was first elected as an MHA in 2019 after careers in the military, construction and municipal politics.

In a press release issued after his announcement, he stressed the need for accountability, transparency and democracy within the province's leadership along with plans to address a struggling health-care system,improve climate resiliency and develop the province's resources.

Wakeham,the MHA forStephenville-Port au Port and the party's current finance critic, is making his second attempt at becoming leader after losing to Crosbie in 2018.

During his campaign, he has stressed the need to improve the health-care system, calling it the most pressing issue in the province at his leadership announcement speech in January.

Wakeham has been endorsed by several Conservative MHAs, includeing Loyola O'Driscoll, Joedy Wall, Craig Pardy and Pleaman Forsey, as well as former premier Tom Marshall.

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