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Bergen told the National Post by phone that she did not want to comment on the matter.

She would face at least one major obstacle if she got in the race: she is not bilingual, and many Conservatives believe their leader must be fluent enough to take part in French-language debates. It would be difficult for Bergen to get her French up to that level quickly.

However, if Bergen entered the race it would give the Conservatives a female candidate from Western Canada with deep experience in the party, including as a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s government and as a prominent member of the Conservative front bench in opposition.

Photo by Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press

Bergen, a former financial planner, was Harper’s Manitoba campaign manager when he ran for Conservative leader in 2004. She was first elected as an MP in 2008, representing the largely rural Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar, and served as social development minister from 2013 to 2015. She has been Opposition House Leader since 2016, which means she quarterbacks the party’s parliamentary strategy and is frequently up speaking in the House of Commons.

There is already at least one female candidate in the race, as two-term Ontario MP Marilyn Gladu announced earlier this month that she’d hired a campaign manager and is collecting the signatures and money needed to enter.

Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner, who also served in Harper’s cabinet, has not ruled out a run. “I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next few days,” Rempel Garner told reporters on Friday when asked if she would be putting her name forward.