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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Former Winnipegger eyes provincial Liberal leadership
A Toronto-based lobbyist who was born and raised in Winnipeg has designs on the provincial Liberal leadership.
Ajay Chopra, a 36-year-old University of Winnipeg grad who left the city in 1999, said he plans to move back early this fall in a bid to lead the Grits.
"I think there is a leadership vacuum now in Manitoba. And there's a real thirst for change," said Chopra, who finished second to the NDP's George Hickes in the Point Douglas constituency in the 1999 provincial election.
Chopra, a consultant at the Capital Hill Group in Toronto, is the second person to declare interest in the Liberal leadership in the past two weeks.
Jon Gerrard, the MLA for River Heights, has announced he will step down as Liberal leader. His successor will be chosen in the fall of 2013.
Chopra has worked as an assistant to former federal Liberal justice minister Martin Cauchon and served as intergovernmental affairs adviser to Phil Fontaine when Fontaine was grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He also spent eight months organizing on the Prairies for Bob Rae during Rae's unsuccessful bid for the federal Liberal leadership in 2006.
Despite the fact the Liberals managed to win only one seat -- and only 7.5 per cent of the popular vote -- in last fall's provincial election, Chopra believes the party is poised for bigger things.
Earlier this month, The Canadian Press reported that business consultant Robert Young, 52, who worked in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an executive assistant to two Winnipeg city councillors with Liberal ties, was interested in the party's leadership.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 10, 2012 A4
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