(Black PR Wire) Jamaican Leslyn Lewis, a Toronto attorney, is the first black woman to seek the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, and so in one sense, she has already won a significant victory. Lewis was a relative unknown when she made her decision to run for the top position in the party, but she impressed experienced party operatives and members of its grassroots organization as well. Lewis has a Ph.D. in law and a master’s degree in environmental studies. She has managed to attract supporters from both established Conservative Party figures and individuals from a broader swath of the conservative movement.

In an interview with the Star, Lewis said that she did not originally even identify herself as a social conservative as she had always considered herself a fiscal conservative. This was what brought her to the party in the first place and not her social conservative values. Now, while she does not believe that is a complete definition of her thinking, she does believe that the media has not provided the public with a fair representation of what a social conservative is.

She feels that what makes her appealing to the electorate is that she is authentic, saying, ‘This is who I am and this is what I believe, and this is the beauty of our democracy that people are free to have their beliefs.”