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Grey was set to meet with another former PPC candidate in Saskatoon, though that prospect later took himself out of contention. Grey is also looking at two other supporters of the PPC’s 2019 campaign, which earned the fledgling right-wing party just 1.8 per cent of the vote in Saskatchewan.

“I can’t speak for how the PPC ran their campaign,” said Grey. “But we’re going to run ours a little differently. It’s going to be a totally different election; totally different issues.”

Photo by BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

The PPC influx started in January after Grey reached out to Trevor Wowk, thedefeated PPC candidate for Regina-Lewvan.Wowk said he had explored forming a provincial PPC wing. But the work required to register a new party was daunting, so the trio of Regina candidates opted for the PCs instead.

“Everybody had our asses kicked,” Wowk said. “Everyone was tired.”

He agreed with Grey that the Saskatchewan Party isn’t conservative enough. Wowk faulted Premier Scott Moe for not doing enough, in his view, to ensure the survival of the province’s coal industry.

Grey said he pitched in on Wowk’s campaign. He dismissed any notion that his party is becoming, in effect, the provincial wing of the PPC. He noted that the party has 25 candidates, most without a PPC connection.

“I was doing this way before Maxime Bernier was on the scene,” said Grey.

He also rejected the term “PPC takeover” in favour of “conservative takeover.”

“It’s a conservative re-energization,” Wowk added.