The race to select a full-time replacement for Stephen Harper as Conservative leader is quietly heating up.

Sources told the Star that the first meeting of the nascent Tony Clement leadership campaign was held Thursday night in Toronto.

Participants in the four-hour session in a downtown office tower included Tory activists from Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

Clement, a former Harper cabinet minister who finished third in the Conservative leadership race in 2004, was at Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose’s Christmas party at Stornoway and did not attend the Toronto meeting.

But the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka dialed in for a 10-minute conference call with his burgeoning team, which also includes veterans of his unsuccessful 2002 bid for the Ontario Progressive Conservative helm.

His backers are emboldened by a growing belief that long-time presumed front-runner Jason Kenney, a capable organizer with deep ties to many cultural communities, will not run.

They believe Kenney, a former cabinet minister, may leave federal politics and seek to unite-the-right in his home province of Alberta, which is now governed by NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

It is unclear if he would seek the vacant Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership and then broker some sort of unification with the Wildrose Party, currently led by his former federal caucus mate Brian Jean.

He was involved in the 2004 Canadian Alliance-Progressive Conservative merger that paved the way to Harper’s nine-year reign, which ended when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won the Oct. 19 election.

Without Kenney in the contest, the leadership vote, unlikely to be held until 2017, would be wide open.

Others mentioned as potential candidates include former cabinet ministers Kellie Leitch, who is slowly building a campaign team, Lisa Raitt, Peter MacKay, and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

Meanwhile, Conservatives, who have been led by only Harper, are buoyed by Ambrose’s early days as interim leader and her steady performance so far in the Commons.

A parliamentary veteran — the Edmonton MP was first elected in 2004 and held a variety of cabinet posts — she has proven adept as the Tories find their feet as the official Opposition.

The Commons sat for only a week before rising for Christmas, but Ambrose hit the Liberals on the decision to end the combat mission against the Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, the wobbly pledge to hold the deficit to under $10 billion, job losses in the oil sector, and the “vague” promises around electoral reform.

Parliament doesn’t resume again until late January. Insiders say they hope to use the break to get Ambrose out to make speeches to Conservative loyalists to boost fundraising and help replenish party coffers drained by the election.

They want to raise money before the leadership contest begins in earnest and contenders begin tapping donors for their own campaigns.

Behind the scenes, Ambrose has moved into Stornoway, the residence provided to the leader of the official Opposition in the tony Ottawa neighbourhood of Rockcliffe.

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She has been using the elegant house to host meetings with Conservative MPs and others as the party begins to regroup after its election loss.

The former Treasury Board president was also federal health minister after being elected in 2006. Prior to that, Clement, 54, a long-time Conservative activist and lawyer, was Ontario’s health minister, environment minister and municipal affairs minister.

Kellie Leitch

A pediatric orthopedic surgeon in Ontario, the 45-year-old Simcoe-Grey MP is veteran of the political backrooms who was first elected in 2011. She was Harper’s minister of labour and minister responsible for the status of women.

Lisa Raitt

The 47-year-old lawyer ran the Toronto Port Authority for almost a decade before being elected in 2008. She was immediately elevated to Harper’s cabinet and served as transport minister, labour minister, and natural resources minister.

Peter MacKay

A co-founder with Harper of the Conservative Party of Canada, the 50-year-old lawyer did not seek re-election in the October campaign after nine years in cabinet as minister of foreign affairs, justice, and defence.

Brad Wall

The populist Saskatchewan premier, 50, has been in power since 2007 and is up for re-election in April. Many federal Conservatives want him to come to Ottawa and lead them back to power. He’s taking French lessons.

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