Long time MP confirms he will not seek leadership of Alberta PC Party

Edmonton-Leduc Member of Parliament James Rajotte said he will not seek the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party, thanks in part to rumours of a Jim Prentice run.

“He’s a quality guy, I’ve worked with him here (Parliament Hill) professionally obviously, he’s an A plus character and did a fantastic job as Minister,” he told reporters.

Rajotte said he considered a run, put calls out and spoke with party insiders and ultimately decided against it.

“Certainly (Prentice) it’s a huge impact in terms of my decision, but also someone going back, you’re going to have to commit the next year and a half, 2 years to doing as much as you can in terms of politics and rebuilding the party,” he said. “Frankly the advice I was getting was very different, a lot of people were saying James you should run and some were saying no you shouldn’t, I was getting some very mixed reaction.”

The long-time politician stopped short of discussing whether or not Prentice will be anointed or whether he’ll have to work at garnering the nomination.

“We’ll have to see what happens, Ken has indicated he will stay in the race and I think there are others that have indicated so we’ll have to see what happens there,” he said.

Rajotte said he has nothing but confidence in the job that Prentice would be able to do and adds he’s also very friendly with Wildrose leader Danielle Smith.

He told reporters it’s his intention to seek the federal Conservative nomination of Edmonton-Riverbend for the next federal election.