Bryan Brulotte announces he’s running for CPC leadership

Brulotte has been active within the Conservative movement for some time: serving as the deputy chief of staff to Paul Dick in 1993, and then running as a Progressive Conservative candidate for Lanark-Carlton in 2000. He finished in third place, behind the Alliance and Liberal Party candidates.

After his career in politics, Brulotte founded a sparkling business, which earned him his million-dollar fortune.

This fortune will be particularly useful for the leadership contest due to the vertiginous leadership costs. “Party sources” have told the CBC that the candidates will have to pay $300,000 and will have to gather 3,000 signatures—effectively limiting the competition to affluent Conservative supporters or party officials with an already established support base.

Brulotte comes across as a radical Conservative, with a twist of exotic legislative objectives. He has stated his desire to unite Canada, whilst also suggesting that Canada should purchase a Caribbean island.

Brulotte markets himself as a caring capitalist who would want to booster Canada’s already broad welfare state. Brulotte, for example, would install a negative income tax, a form of universal basic income, and would also raise the tax bracket for the richest Canadians.

Not uncontroversially, Brulotte has labelled the Carbon Tax effective but seeks to devolve environmental powers to the provinces to help tackle carbon emissions.

Brulotte has no nationwide profile and is still unknown even amongst the majority of Conservative party members. With the leadership convention being held on June 27, Brulotte still has time to gain favour with the CPC electorate.