OTTAWA—Conservative leadership hopeful Peter MacKay is already looking to bring in new blood to his leadership campaign less than two weeks after launching a bid to replace Andrew Scheer that has been dogged by missteps.

Three sources told the Star on Wednesday the MacKay campaign is disorganized and doesn’t have a formal structure, with frustration growing among insiders working on his leadership bid. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters.

The internal frustration among MacKay backers comes after a series of unforced errors put the perceived front-runner’s campaign on the defensive, including staffers shutting down an on-camera interview with CTV earlier this week.

Sources tell the Star that Nick Kouvalis, the veteran organizer who played senior roles on both Rob Ford’s and John Tory’s mayoral bids in Toronto, has been in discussions to join MacKay’s team. Julie Vaux, a former spokesperson for Stephen Harper and former chief of staff to Rona Ambrose, is now MacKay’s director of communications and will be travelling with the candidate. Rachel Curran, Harper’s former director of policy who worked on Pierre Poilievre’s aborted leadership bid, has also been floated as a possible addition to MacKay’s team.

But there are serious “structural challenges” within the campaign, multiple sources said, including no formal organizational hierarchy and a lack of communication from MacKay to the broader team. If things don’t change quickly, one source said, the campaign risks losing talented operatives who hope to install MacKay as the next Conservative leader.

In a statement to the Star, the MacKay campaign did not address questions about frustration within its ranks. Instead, his spokesperson pointed to MacKay’s fundraising success — the campaign says he’s raised nearly $500,000 so far, with more than 3,000 signatures of support.

“Peter has been speaking to packed rooms across five provinces over 10 days and (has) brought together 1,500 volunteers in a very short time,” wrote Vaux in an email, crediting those volunteers with the campaign’s successes to date.

“We are ready to win this leadership campaign.”

MacKay officially entered the race to replace Andrew Scheer on Jan. 25, but had long been reported to be preparing a bid after the Conservatives’ disappointing election loss in last October’s federal election. The Star reported Saturday that MacKay’s team had already raised the required $300,000 and obtained the 3,000 endorsements to satisfy the Conservative party’s steep requirements to contest the leadership.

But despite his front-runner status, MacKay’s campaign has been disrupted by a series of missteps — poor French in his campaign launch speech, an ambiguous statement about his position on Israel that later needed clarification, and, most publicly, his staff cutting short an on-camera interview with CTV Toronto.

On Monday, MacKay told a CTV reporter that he wanted to “do politics differently” with more compassion and civility. When the reporter asked him about a recent post on his personal Twitter account criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for expensing yoga and spa sessions to his Liberal leadership campaign — which MacKay later disavowed and said he didn’t vet before posting — MacKay’s spokespeople quickly shut down the interview.

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“She’s just doing her job. She’s a journalist,” MacKay said before the interview ended.

MacKay was also forced to clarify that he supported moving Canada’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — which has been party policy since 2018 — after giving a confusing interview to a right-leaning politics website. The website interpreted his comments as refusing to commit to moving the embassy.

Despite the missteps, Conservative insiders still see the leadership race — which includes MPs Erin O’Toole, Marilyn Gladu and Derek Sloan, as well as businessman Rick Peterson and former staffer Richard Décarie — as MacKay’s to lose.

Conservative members will select their next leader at a convention in Toronto on June 27.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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