OTTAWA — David Orchard, author and perennial outsider in Tory party politics, is making another bid for the leadership of the federal Conservatives.

The Saskatchewan grain farmer, environmental activist and anti-free trade crusader has called news conferences in Ottawa and Montreal on Tuesday to announce he will be the third official candidate. Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay and Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice announced last week that they intend to run. On June 1 in Toronto, the Tories will choose a leader to replace Joe Clark.

Orchard, 53, finished third out of five candidates on the first ballot in the 1998 Tory leadership race and was the only contender to hold on for a second ballot, which Clark won by a landslide.

Author of the book The Fight for Canada, Orchard describes himself as a "true Conservative" in the model of Sir John A. Macdonald.

He's known for attracting a dedicated group of supporters who tend to come from outside traditional party ranks.

Clark once called Orchard a tourist in the party. Prentice said last week "There's no room in this party for a leader who does not believe in free trade."

Orchard did a year of law at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon before touring the globe and then taking over the family farm in Borden, Sask. He later studied French at Laval University.

He has raised organically grown wheat, oats, barley, canola and alfalfa crops for 27 years without herbicides, pesticides, chemicals or genetically modified organisms.

In 1985, he founded Citizens Concerned About Free Trade, a non-partisan organization critical of the effects on Canadian sovereignty of free-trade with the United States.

He has opposed Western and Quebec separatism and says he's a strong defender of French and aboriginals throughout Canada.

He campaigned against the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords because of what he referred to as their "mortal weakening of the national government - the only institution that speaks for all Canadians."

He advocates a foreign policy designed to serve Canada's interests. He has opposed the bombing of Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, calling them violations of international law and the UN Charter.

He wants to rebuild Canada's military.

In the 2000 federal election, Orchard was defeated as the Tory candidate in the riding of Prince Albert.