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The party machinery is already in motion to set the timeline and rules of a permanent leadership race. A leadership organizing committee was struck last weekend.

Ambrose said she has spoken with Tory caucus members; potential leadership candidates inside and outside the party; former Tory prime ministers Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell; and former Reform party leader Preston Manning. She said a consensus is emerging that “we shouldn’t do anything before spring 2017.”

Jason Kenney, a top lieutenant in Stephen Harper’s government, is seen as a strong candidate if he’s interested. It’s widely expected Conservative MPs and former ministers Lisa Raitt, Tony Clement and Kellie Leitch also will run for the leadership. Many Conservatives hope former minister Peter MacKay and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall will make a bid.

Ambrose said she has spoken to “all of the obvious candidates that there’s been a lot of speculation around,” and told them her job is to help leverage their parliamentary roles and public profiles to generate interest in the leadership race.

“I’ve told them that if they want to run, that I encourage them to, that I’m very supportive of their interest in running, that I want to make it as easy as I can for them in the House of Commons to be able to launch, should that be their plan. So I’m trying to facilitate that. I don’t want their role in the House of Commons to be in any way punitive or prohibitive of them running,” she said.

“I’ve told them that I’m working with them, all of them, to showcase them, and give them opportunities to shine, both in Parliament and outside Parliament,” she added. “I want Canadians to see the great leaders that they are.”

She has also made it known within the Conservative caucus that if anyone else is thinking about a leadership run, the party will find ways to “leverage opportunities” for them.