Broadcaster and author Andrew Lawton has announced he is running for the Conservative Party nomination in a London, Ont., riding, a day after the incumbent said she would not seek re-election. He is the latest media personality among several others to seek candidacy for the party.
“I’ve spent my career advocating for conservative values, for freedom, for common sense, and I’ve always tried to figure out how I can best advance those things,” Lawton told The Epoch Times in a July 31 interview.
“I’ve had some great opportunities to do it through the media, but I didn’t want to sit this election out.”
Lawton said he had heard “rumblings a little while back” that Vecchio, who he has known for several years, would not be running again. “I’ve had a couple of conversations with her, but obviously, I’ve thought about [running] relatively recently and decided it was something I wanted to do,” he said.
Lawton was a radio host for The Roy Green Show, occasionally filled in for now-Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her radio program, and hosted the Andrew Lawton Show on 980 CFPL in London. He is currently the chief editor of the news outlet True North, and recently published a book on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
So far, Lawton is the first candidate to announce his bid for the Conservative nomination in the riding. He said he chose to announce he was running early because he wanted to “jump in with both feet,” and did not want to sell memberships for the nomination while simultaneously working in the media.
“That’s been the bittersweet part of it, because I’ve just been so tremendously proud of what True North has become, and what I’ve been doing there, and what the team has been doing there,” he said. “I know there are some people there that are going to be able to step up and fill my shoes, and I’m still going to remain a reader and a viewer.”
Shifting Media Landscape
Lawton said on social media that if elected as Conservative nominee he would work to fight censorship, get rid of the federal carbon tax, reduce government spending, stop assisted suicide for those with mental illness, and “ defund the CBC, and stand up to the elites.”The Conservatives have seen several former media personalities or those with influence on social media joining as MPs or riding candidates.
These include MP Jamil Jivani, a former Bell Media journalist and National Post writer, and MP Melissa Lantsman, who was previously on CTV’s Power Play as a political panelist and was host of a radio show on CFRB 1010 AM. Tory candidate Dr. Matt Strauss, who garnered a large social media following during the COVID-19 pandemic, and candidate Aaron Gunn, an independent journalist, also recently joined the party as candidates within the last year. National Post columnist Sabrina Maddeaux also sought nomination for the party earlier this year, but later dropped her plans to run, alleging irregularities in the nomination race.
Lawton said the reason for this is that Tories have not been “afraid of surrounding themselves with people who have been outspoken” on various conservative issues.
“I think there are some leaders that wouldn’t have wanted someone like me seeking a candidacy, but I don’t feel that I have anything to worry about under the current leadership,” he said.
