OTTAWA–Peter MacKay is stepping up, and Stephen Harper is stepping back.

The co-founders of the modern Conservative party are charting very different courses for their continued involvement with the party, with MacKay seeking its leadership and Harper resigning from its powerful fundraising arm.

In a four-word statement Wednesday, MacKay confirmed he will formally launch his leadership campaign in the coming days.

“I’m in. Stay tuned,” the former cabinet minister wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

MacKay’s laconic confirmation ends months of speculation — which started during the 2019 election campaign — that he would make a bid to replace Andrew Scheer and return to federal politics.

The former Progressive Conservative leader is the first big name to enter the race, and is expected to make a more detailed announcement in his native Nova Scotia later this month.

Harper, meanwhile, has resigned from the board of directors of the Conservative Fund Canada, a position he’d held since stepping down as party leader after the 2015 election.

The Star confirmed Harper’s resignation, which was first reported by Maclean’s magazine, but the former prime minister’s reasons for leaving the board were not immediately clear.

As recently as Friday, a source close to Harper said he intended to remain on the board. And Rachel Curran, Harper’s former director of policy who now works for his private consulting firm, said Harper was broadly “supportive” of the candidates rumoured to be seeking the leadership — with the exception of former Quebec Premier Jean Charest — but would remain neutral in the race.

That appears to have changed.

Maclean’s, citing two unnamed Conservative sources, said Harper’s main reason for quitting the board was to “block” a Charest leadership bid.

Charest declined an interview request Wednesday, but it’s been widely reported that he’s been testing the waters for a return to federal politics for weeks.

MacKay’s official entrance into the race could complicate Charest’s plans. As former leaders of the federal Progressive Conservatives, both would be competing for votes of so-called “red Tories” — moderates who have dwindled both in numbers and influence in the modern Conservative party.

Former Barrie MP Alex Nuttall has been tapped to manage MacKay’s campaign, while strategist Michael Diamond — who managed Premier Doug Ford’s successful Ontario PC leadership campaign — will handle communications. MacKay has also hired Rubicon Strategy — a consulting firm run by Harper’s former director of communications, Kory Teneycke — to help with his campaign, although Teneycke will not have a role. Emrys Graefe, a vice-president at Rubicon, will run MacKay’s digital campaign.

Nuttall was one of the few Conservative MPs to back Maxime Bernier’s leadership bid in 2017, while both Teneycke and Graefe worked on Bernier’s campaign.

It’s expected that more candidates will officially declare their intentions now that the party has released the official rules for entering the leadership contest. Both Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre and Durham MP Erin O’Toole have assembled campaign teams, and have been quietly working for weeks to drum up support among the Conservative grassroots. Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu has also declared her intention to run.

But one of the biggest names thought to be considering a leadership run, former MP and cabinet minister Rona Ambrose, appears to be staying on the sidelines.

Ambrose, who served as the party’s interim leader between Harper’s resignation and Scheer’s election, could not be reached for an interview Wednesday. But La Presse, citing three unnamed sources, reported that she has decided not to enter the race.

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If Ambrose stays out, it could open up the race for another candidate to style themselves as the Western standard bearer. Conservative insiders expect Poilievre — who has lived in Ottawa most of his adult life, but was raised in Calgary — to make that pitch.

Conservative party members will gather in Toronto to select their next leader on June 27.

Correction (Jan. 15): Pierre Poilievre is the MP for Carleton. A previous version of this article misstated his riding as Nepean.

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