OTTAWA-
There are only two weeks left before the Conservative Party of Canada announces its new leader on September 10.
With nearly half of the ballots already cast, the five candidates – Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest, Roman Baber, Scott Aitchison and Leslyn Lewis – are busy rallying support in a final push to secure the vote.
The race for the next party leader began in early February, when Erin O’Toole resigned from her top job. Candidates for office then had to pay the necessary registration fees and submit the signatures of 500 party members in April to have their names put on the ballot.
Ballots were sent to a record number of party members in early July and must be returned by September 6. About 326,000 ballots were returned on Thursday, according to party spokesman Yaroslav Baran.
Along with the countdown, CTVNews.ca has compiled a roundup of key moments from the race.
HISTORICAL MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS
In late July, the party announced that its finalized membership list had reached nearly 679,000 people, saying the number made the Conservative Party the largest party in Canadian history by membership.
Baran said at the time that membership had quadrupled since last year. Every province and territory has seen its membership at least double, he said, while numbers have quadrupled in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and British Columbia.
The number of ballots returned so far has already exceeded the number of votes cast in the 2020 leadership election.
Party President Robert Batherson said in a statement in July that the “massive increase in membership” proves the excitement the race has generated and “the momentum for a change of government in Ottawa.”
The party declined to disclose the number of memberships sold by individual leadership campaigns, so it is unclear whether any candidate can claim responsibility for the swell in certain areas. But Pierre Poilievre claimed in June that his campaign had sold nearly 312,000 memberships.
CHAREST AND POILIEVRE ARE PERCEIVED TAKERS
The race appears to be down to two favourites: longtime MP Pierre Poilievre and former Quebec premier Jean Charest.
Poilievre, who has been an MP for 18 years, is campaigning on a message of promising freedom for Canadians and getting rid of the “gatekeepers”. The Ottawa-area MP has drawn the biggest crowds of any competitor since announcing his candidacy in February and says he has been backed by a majority of the federal Conservative caucus.
In July, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper endorsed Poilievre, saying in a video posted to Twitter that Poilievre had made the “strongest case” to be able to recruit new party members and win the next general election.
But Poilievre has also been the main target of condemnation from many politicians and pundits, critics of his populist policies and the delegitimization of certain institutions, such as the Bank of Canada.
Charest, for his part, was endorsed by 16 MPs in July and was widely seen as the most moderate candidate, campaigning on his track record as a former premier of Quebec.
The two favorite candidates focused many of their attacks on each other throughout the race, with Poilievre accusing Charest of being a liberal, and Charest claiming that Poilievre should be disqualified from the race for supporting the convoy truckers in February.
According to a Leger poll released in August, Poilievre is the clear favorite among CPC members, while Charest has more support among Canadians in general.
The gap could mean challenges in the next general election, Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque told The Canadian Press, depending on who becomes leader and whether he is able to unite the party to overthrow the government. liberal.
Charest did not say whether he would still run as a Conservative MP in the next general election if he lost the leadership.
DISQUALIFICATION OF PATRICK BROWN
In early July, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was disqualified from the leadership race, following “serious allegations of wrongdoing”.
Brown initially said he would fight what he called “phantom allegations” and insisted his campaign “did nothing wrong”.
But Debra Jodoin, a longtime Conservative organizer, later released a statement through her lawyer claiming that Brown was involved in a third-party company paying her for work she had done in the part of his campaign.
A committee reviewing Brown’s ouster later concluded the party had enough evidence to disqualify him, The Canadian Press reported. Brown has since announced his candidacy for re-election as mayor of Brampton.
Conservative strategist and President of Texture Communications Melanie Paradis told CTV News Channel in July that it would be very difficult to predict the impact of Brown’s disqualification on the race because the vote is weighted by constituency, as opposed to to an individual voting system.
“It will be very interesting to see how this plays out,” she said. “Where are these voters going? Are the people he recruited going somewhere? Or will they fall? In which case, it would completely change the calculation of points in each constituency,” Paradis said.
Brown’s name is still on the ballots, however, because the party “simply [didn’t] have time to make a reprint” of the nearly 679,000 ballots, while ensuring voters have time to return their completed ballots before the September 6 deadline, party chairman Robert Batherson at CTV News Channel in July.
LITIGATION DEBATES
Since May, the candidates have participated in three official debates.
The first official debate in English in mid-May promised to focus on politics, but drew heavy criticism for its format. The debate featured a sad trombone sound effect as contestants broke debate rules and questions about pop culture preferences, from favorite TV shows to music to books, while contestants had to hold paddles when they wanted to talk.
During the French debate a few weeks later, the candidates took advantage of what they thought was the last official debate to launch pointed attacks on their opponents.
But after Charest pushed for a third formal debate, arguing that new party members would benefit, the party held an August 3, with just three candidates participating.
Poilievre and Lewis skipped the event, facing $50,000 fines. Meanwhile, Charest, former Ontario MPP Roman Baber and MP Scott Aitchison debated in both official languages, seated around a large blue table – a setup Charest called “bizarre” .
A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE PARTY?
The race has often been called a battle for the soul of the Conservative Party, with many wondering how the winner hopes to bring all of its members – and the losers of the race – together under one big blue tent after such a contentious campaign.
Poilievre’s critics have accused him of eroding Canadians’ trust in their institutions, after he repeatedly promised to “get rid of the gatekeepers.” Meanwhile, Baber and MP Leslyn Lewis have been accused of peddling conspiracy theories.
Baber has been vocal throughout the race in his opposition to pandemic measures, which is a big part of what got him ousted from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s caucus last year, while Lewis has voiced of his concerns about the World Economic Forum, the WHO pandemic treaty, the effectiveness of COVID -19 vaccines and abortion.
Former B.C. Premier Christy Clark – while supporting Charest – gave a speech in Edmonton earlier this month in which she said the party was “running to the extremes to play to the limits of the political divide”.
But some candidates have touted their messages of cooperation and the need for party unity. Lewis released a letter in August saying she “hated politics” and refused to attack her opponents. And Aitchison has vowed to “bring respect back to politics in Ottawa” throughout his “Hope and Respect Tour.”
And the campaign’s final official debate focused on party unity, with the three participants scrambling to move away from the divisive rhetoric of the past six months and instead stress the need to come together after the announcement of the new leader.
With files from CTV’s Rachel Aiello and Sarah Turnbull, and The Canadian Press