Former NWT minister Wally Schumann may be excluded from the run-off to decide the territory’s next Conservative candidate, party members say.
Schumann, the NWT’s industry minister from 2015 to 2019, had been expecting to join another ex-MLA, Jackie Jacobson, and Kimberly Fairman in at least a three-way contest for the role.
However, three people with knowledge of the nomination process said the national Conservative Party appeared not to be letting Schumann’s name stand.
Why he might be excluded by the national party was not clear.
“I haven’t had an official response in writing that I’m not a candidate, and I’m looking at what other options are possible,” Schumann told Cabin Radio when reached by phone briefly on Friday.
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The confusion threatened to derail an attempt to restore the party’s NWT presence after it had to rely on a silent candidate from Thunder Bay in 2021. The NWT hasn’t had an MP representing any form of Canadian conservative party since the 1980s.
The successful nominee from the current process will stand for the Conservatives in the NWT riding at the next federal election, which must be held on or before October 20, 2025. The NDP has already chosen Kelvin Kotchilea as its NWT candidate. Whether MP Michael McLeod will seek another term for the Liberals after a decade in the seat is not yet clear.
So far, most of the Conservative process has happened behind closed doors.
Nominations to enter the race closed on April 17. More than a week later, the party has yet to produce a list of confirmed nominees despite repeated requests.
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Multiple members of the party in the NWT said they had yet to receive a list of nominees from which to choose or a fixed timeline for a candidate to be selected. A national party campaign manager understood to be involved in the process did not respond to a request for comment.
Matt Lakusta, president of the Conservative electoral district association in the NWT, told Cabin Radio Jacobson and Fairman “have been confirmed by National [and] Wally has not been.”
Lakusta said he was not able to comment on decisions made at the national level.
On its Facebook page, the electoral district association said on Friday it extended “congratulations to all the confirmed nominees who will be working hard to gain the support of our members” – but did not say who those nominees were, or how many there are.
