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I’m not happy with the direction of the country

“I want to make sure that the country that I was raised in and the opportunities that I had as a child are there for my children,” said Lewis, who immigrated to Canada from Jamaica when she was five. “I’m not happy with the direction of the country…I think that I have a certain level of skill sets that would be very beneficial to the leadership position.”

She’s run for office once before, losing in the 2015 federal election after stepping in mid-campaign for Conservative candidate Jerry Bance — who was infamously caught urinating in a mug on an investigative TV show and had to drop out. In understated fashion, Lewis calls that campaign an “uphill battle.”

As a lawyer, Lewis specializes in commercial law and helping companies sell green technology abroad. She has four university degrees, including a master of environmental studies from York University and a PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School, as well as a slew of community service awards. Ford appointed her as vice-chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which distributes more than $100 million in grants to community projects.

Lewis is also a black woman, a rare sight in a leadership race for any Canadian political party.

“There’s a lot of optimism about me, because I represent the part of the party that they may not have seen before,” she said. “I think that the Conservative Party has to do better in reaching diverse communities, in letting people know that they’re inclusive of people of all beliefs and persuasions and races and religions…People see the party as too white and too male, and they don’t see diverse representation.”