MP Helena Guergis says she will run as an "independent conservative" in the next federal election after being dropped as the official Conservative Party candidate in the central Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey.

MP Helena Guergis says her constituents are urging her to stand as an Independent candidate in the next federal election. ((CBC)) In an interview Thursday on CBC-TV's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, Guergis insisted she is a conservative and "always will be" but feels her constituents have told her they want her as their representative in Ottawa.

"They’re very upset," she said. "They’re angered that their opinion, their vote, at this point has not mattered, and they have told me very clearly that they will support me as an Independent."

Guergis now sits as an Independent MP after she resigned her junior cabinet post and was kicked out of the Conservative caucus by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in April, then removed as the Tory candidate in her riding.

In July, the RCMP cleared the former cabinet minister of unspecified allegations forwarded to the force by the prime minister.

The Mounties informed Guergis and her husband, former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer, that it had concluded its investigation and found there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by either of them.

She reiterated she would vote with the government on Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to repeal the long-gun registry but would examine other House votes on a case-by-case basis.

Leitch expected to seek nomination

Guergis's comments come ahead of an expected Simcoe-Grey candidacy announcement this weekend by Kellie Leitch, a pediatric surgeon and well-known Conservative Party backer in Ontario.

Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier has already announced he is seeking the party's nomination in the riding.

Leitch's anticipated candidacy shows the Tories are fielding an "ultimate insider" in the riding, said Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary professor who previously served as Harper's chief of staff.

"They're not going to give Helena a free ride," Flanagan told Solomon.

Guergis wants 'conversation' with PM

During her interview on Thursday, Guergis sounded a conciliatory note when asked if she feels she deserves an apology from the prime minister, saying she believes it is in the party's and her community's best interests to "mend those fences."

"I think we just need to have a conversation," she said in reference to the prime minister. "I do believe that there are some people around him who may have advised him incorrectly on things."

But Guergis said she has had no contact with the Prime Minister's Office since the RCMP cleared her. But she said she has had several conversations with Conservative MPs and officials who have expressed "concern" the party has set a "precedent" in her case.

"What I find very interesting from those conversations is that they have highlighted that this is something that has happened to me … where someone has said a lot of terrible things about me," she said.

"It's been proven to not be true. To have no substance whatsoever to allegations, it could happen to them. So there is concern that, you know, we might be setting a precedent here as we go forward."