In 2020, the Conservative Party of Canada held a leadership election held to elect a new party leader. The election was prompted by Andrew Scheer's announcement in December 2019 that he would resign as party leader.[3] The election was conducted by postal ballot from mid-July to August 21, 2020,[4] with the ballots processed and results announced on August 23–24, 2020.[5] The $300,000 entrance fee made it the most expensive leadership race in the history of Canadian politics, at that time.[6]
The election was originally scheduled for June 27, 2020, but on March 26, the party suspended the race due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[7] On April 29, it was announced that the race would proceed by postal ballot with the election itself being rescheduled from June to August.[4] MacKay led the first ballot with 33.52 per cent by a narrow margin of around 2 per cent. O'Toole subsequently led on the second ballot and won on the third ballot, becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party.
Campaign
Background
On October 21, 2019, the 2019 Canadian federal election was held. The Conservatives remained in opposition against a minority Liberal government. Under the Conservative Party's constitution, an election loss results in a leadership review at the next party convention. The following day, Scheer announced his intention to remain leader of the party.[8]
As early as October 23, there were reports that party members were already privately voicing dissatisfaction with Scheer's leadership, and suggestions that he could face a leadership challenge at the next party convention in April.[9] By the end of the month, Conservative figures were making their criticism public, and an online petition was launched that called for Scheer to resign.[10] Former MP and cabinet minister Peter MacKay described the election as "like having a breakaway on an open net and missing the net"; he attributed the loss to Scheer's socially conservative views, which he said "hung around [his] neck like a stinking albatross" and distracted from other policies and issues. MacKay's comments additionally fuelled speculation that he was vying for the leadership.[11]
On November 6, Scheer met with the Conservative caucus for the first time since the election, where they discussed the federal election and why the party failed to win. Scheer attributed the loss not to policy, but poor communication. During the meeting, the caucus voted against adopting the provisions of the Reform Act; as adopting them would have allowed the caucus to begin the process of ousting Scheer, his leadership was seen as safe until the April convention.[12] However, criticism did not abate; a report in the Toronto Star cited calls for Scheer's resignation from within the business community, energy sector and several high-profile party insiders.[13]
On December 12, Scheer announced that he was stepping down as leader, pending the election of his successor. He also said he would stay on as MP for Regina—Qu'Appelle "for the near future".[14] The leadership convention was scheduled for June 27, 2020.[15]
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the timing of the leadership election. On March 12, Peter MacKay, Erin O'Toole, Rick Peterson and Leslyn Lewis suspended all public campaign events, while Marilyn Gladu "assess[ed] events and activities on a daily and event-by-event basis", due to public health guidelines.[16] The next day, March 13, Gladu, Rudy Husny and Rick Peterson called for either the race to be postponed or for entry deadlines to be pushed back.[17] On March 19, Husny dropped out, citing an unwillingness to fundraise during a public health emergency.[18] Peterson followed on March 20, criticizing the organizing committee's unwillingness to move the deadlines as unfair.[19]
On March 26, the Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) postponed the race, as well as cancelling debates planned for April and pushing back the membership deadline to May 15. The LEOC did not set a new date, and said they would revisit the decision on May 1.[7] On April 29, the LEOC announced the resumption of the contest, with the vote taking place entirely by mail-in ballot and without a convention.[4] No definitive date was set for when the results would be announced, but the LEOC clarified that the results would be announced "as soon as those ballots can be properly processed and examined by scrutineers while respecting any health guidelines in place at that time."[20]
Allegations of hacking
On June 19, Erin O'Toole accused MacKay's campaign of theft of confidential campaign data and strategy including Zoom conference videos after discovering that their "systems were hacked earlier this week".[21] Later that day, O'Toole filed a formal complaint and requested that the RCMP, OPP, and Toronto Police Service investigate Peter MacKay's campaign and his senior campaign staff member Jamie Lall.[22]
On June 20, MacKay's campaign dismissed the allegations and called them a "desperate, last ditch strategy" and "mildly amusing."[23] Lall publicly denied the allegations in a post on his personal Twitter account.[24]
On June 22, the National Post reported that the O'Toole campaign received a confession letter from MP staff member implicating Lall and describing him as a "senior regional adviser to the Peter MacKay campaign."[25] Later in the day, the RCMP released a statement saying they have begun an investigation into O'Toole's allegations against the MacKay campaign, while Lall stated that he is "aggressively pursuing" legal action against the O'Toole campaign.[26] MacKay spokesperson Chisholm Pothier told CBC News Tuesday that the O'Toole team sent its confidential passwords and logins to more than 300 MPs and their political staff members — something Pothier said was done "negligently and with no reasonable expectation of privacy."[27] In response, O'Toole campaign manager Fred DeLorey tweeted, "this is a willful attempt at deception. There is a big diff between sending invitees a code for specific meetings and someone breaking into the private admin and stealing all of the files. The former is standard operations, the latter is a crime. That is what is being investigated."[28]
On June 24, an ex-staff member to MP Greg McLean admitted to trying to leak Erin O'Toole's confidential video records, but says the MacKay campaign turned him down, according to Toronto Star's Alex Boutilier and Kieran Leavitt.[29] MP McLean later tweeted, "sadly, this is completely inconsistent with what was told to me and senior O'Toole officials by this young man. I know not to trust this. The police investigation will determine the truth"[30] Erin O'Toole Campaign staff member Anthony Koch also tweeted, "how do you explain the Calgary and midtown Toronto IP addresses that accessed the zoom admin account illegally multiple times over the course of a week and downloaded over 140 unique videos?"[31]
Timeline
2019
October 21 – The 2019 Canadian federal election was held. The Conservatives remained in opposition against a minority Liberal government.[32] Under CPC rules, a loss in an election triggers an automatic leadership review.
October 22 – CPC Leader Andrew Scheer announced he will continue as leader.[8]
December 12 – Andrew Scheer announced his pending resignation as leader of the Conservatives, Andrew Scheer will remain MP for Regina—Qu'Appelle when a new leader is elected.[14]
December 21 – The party executive announced that a national party policy convention scheduled for mid-April 2020 has been postponed until November "so greater focus could be given to the details and organization around the Conservative leadership election process."[33]
December 24 – The party announced that former Deputy Leader Lisa Raitt will co-chair the organizing committee for the leadership race.[34] Dan Nowlan is the committee's other co-chair.[35]
2020
January 13 – Leadership election process officially commences.[36][2][37]
February 27 – Deadline for potential candidates to enter leadership election. Candidates must have, by this date, paid at least $25,000 towards their registration fee and submitted signatures of at least 1,000 party members qualified to nominate them for leader.[2][37][38]
March 25 – Deadline for candidates to meet all entry requirements, including having paid the $300,000 entrance fee and compliance deposit in full and collected signatures of 3,000 qualified party members from 30 Electoral District Associations, in at least seven provinces or territories.[2][37][39]
March 26 – Leadership race suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.[7] Party officials said that the schedule for the debates and leadership convention would be revisited on May 1, 2020.[7]
April 29– The party's Leadership Election Organizing Committee announced the resumption of the leadership election process, with the vote to occur via mail-in ballot that needs to be received by August 21, 2020.[40][4]
May 15 – New deadline to sign up as a member for purposes of voting in the leadership race. Previous deadline was April 17, 2020.[41]
June 17 – French-language debate in Toronto, moderated by Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt.[42][43][44]
June 18 – English-language debate in Toronto, moderated by Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt.[42][43][45]
June 24 – Etobicoke—Lakeshore Conservative Association debate (online).
June 27 – Original date of the leadership election, postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
July 8 – Vancouver Centre Conservative Association debate via Zoom.
July 14 – Announcement by the party that 269,469 members are eligible to vote in the leadership race, of which about 100,000 purchased their membership since the start of 2020.[46]
July 18 – Announcement by the party that ballots have been sent out to members.[47]
July 29 – Independent Press Gallery of Canada debate in Toronto.
August 21, 5p.m. EDT – Deadline for election ballots to be filled out and received in order to be counted. The previous date for the election had been 27 June 2020.[4]
August 23–24 – Leadership election results announcement at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.[48] According to the Leadership Election Organizing Committee: "The result will be announced as soon as those ballots can be properly processed and examined by scrutineers while respecting any health guidelines in place at that time." The first ballot was intended to be announced at 6:30p.m. but was not announced after midnight EDT on August 24, due to issues with the envelope-opening and vote counting machines. The final result and O'Toole's victory speech were delivered shortly after 1 am EDT.[20][5]
The fifth debate was turned into a fireside chat with the remaining two candidates after Leslyn Lewis released a statement sending her regrets due to a medical issue.[54][55] Soon after Peter MacKay chose to not attend the debate.[56][54][57]
Rules and procedures
On January 11, 2020, the party's Leadership Election Organizing Committee released the Rules and Procedures for the 2020 Leadership document.[2][58] It confirmed the vote would be held under instant-runoff voting. Voting was only open to members of the Conservative Party of Canada who had joined the party on or before April 17 (This date was later pushed back to May 15). Conservative Party membership is open to any Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident age 14 or older.
To appear on the ballot, a member must apply to the Leadership Candidate Nomination Committee between January 13 and February 27, with 1,000 signatures of endorsement from party members (which must span at least 30 Electoral Districts in 7 provinces),[39] a $25,000 installment of the registration fee and a completed 42-page Leadership Contestant Questionnaire, which requires them to declare they accept "the policies, principles, goals and objectives" of the Conservative Party.[59] If approved by the Committees, the applicant has until March 25 to provide the remainder of the 3,000 endorsement signatures and $200,000 registration fee.[37] In addition a $100,000 Compliance Deposit is required prior to 25 March but is returned upon completing required financial filings and adhering to Rules and Procedures document. As in the 2017 leadership election, each electoral district is given 100 points which are distributed according to weight of a candidate's vote in that electoral district, with the first candidate receiving 16,901 points wins the leadership race.[60]
The contest was conducted entirely by postal ballot. To be counted, ballots needed to be completed and received by August 21, 2020 at 5:00p.m. EDT.[4][40]
Candidates
Verified candidates are authorized contestants that have paid the full $200,000 registration fee, the entire $100,000 compliance deposit, and submitted all 3,000 required signatures of endorsement by March 25, 2020. Verified candidates have secured their name on the leadership ballot.[61][62]
Richard Bragdon (MP for Tobique—Mactaquac; Deputy Shadow Minister for Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)[68]
Blaine Calkins (MP for Red Deer-Lacombe, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and Deputy Shadow Minister for Wildlife, Conservation and Parks Canada)[110]
Colin Carrie (MP for Oshawa; Shadow Minister for Canada/US Relations and Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)[111]
Brad Johns (Nova Scotia MLA for Sackville-Beaver Bank, Halifax Regional Council for District 19 Middle and Upper Sackville - Lucasville, 2000-2012, and Halifax Regional Council for District 14 Middle/Upper Sackville – Beaver Bank - Lucasville, 2012-2016)[156]
Ben Stewart (British Columbia MLA for Kelowna West, Westside-Kelowna, 2009-2013, former BC Minister of Citizens' Services and former BC Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and the Public Affairs Bureau, 2009-2010, former BC Minister of Community and Rural Development, 2010-2010, former BC Minister of Agriculture, 2010-2011, and former BC Minister of Citizens' Services and Open Government, 2012-2013)[180]
Approved applicants who failed to pass the second qualification stage that required 2,000 signatures and the submission of the full $100,000 compliance fee and at least $50,000 of the entrance fee by March 25, 2020 or who disqualified between Stage 1 and Stage 2.[339]
Marilyn Gladu
Marilyn Gladu
Background
Marilyn Gladu, 57, is the MP for Sarnia—Lambton (2015–present), and was the Shadow Minister of Health (2017–2020),[340] Shadow Minister of Science (2015–2017). Prior to entering politics, she was an engineer for Dow Chemical.[341][342]
Rudy Husny is Director of Stakeholder Relations in the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition and candidate in Outremont in 2011 and 2015.[345][346]
Withdrew due to tight election timeline and rules. Husny cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis as his stated reason for suspending his campaign, saying it is just not right to ask people for money during a public health emergency.[349]
Date registered with Elections Canada:
Campaign website:
Jim Karahalios
Background
Jim Karahalios is a corporate lawyer and founder of activist groups "Axe The Carbon Tax" and "Take Back Our PC Party". He sued the Ontario PC party after narrowly losing an election in November 2018 for party president, but the case has not yet been tried. He is accusing the Ontario PC party of ballot stuffing in that election.[350]
Karahalios obtained the required 3,000 verified signatures and collected $300,000 for the entrance fee, but CPC officers refused to put his name on the ballot. The exact reasons for Karahalios's disqualification were not released.[351] Karahalios contested the disqualification in court.[352][20] On May 20, 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice reinstated his candidacy.[353][354] The judge's decision was made on the basis that the subcommittee which disqualified Karahalios did not have the authority to do so. The day after Karahalios was reinstated as a candidate, he was disqualified by the leadership election organizing committee (LEOC), a body which the judge stated had the authority to disqualify candidates.[355]
Withdrew due to tight election timeline and rules. Peterson also cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis as his stated reason for suspending his campaign. Endorsed Peter MacKay.[19]
Declared candidates who failed to pass the first qualification stage by obtaining at least 1,000 signatures, submit at least $25,000 of the entrance fee by 27 February 2020 and/or pass the vetting process.[339]
Décarie advocated for social conservative values.[365]"I think 'LGBTQ' is a Liberal term. I don't talk about people that way, I talk about persons, and I think we all need the full respect for being a human being."[366] When asked by an interviewer whether "being gay" was a "choice" or not, Décarie said that it was. This answer lead to calls by Kory Teneycke, a former senior aide to both Stephen Harper and Doug Ford, that he be barred from running.[59] Décarie acquired the required number of signatures and paid the deposit but was disqualified by the party following his interview with the nomination committee.[367] Endorsed Derek Sloan.[335]
Michael Chong – Shadow Minister of Democratic Institutions (2019–present), Shadow Minister of Science (2018–2019), Shadow Minister of Infrastructure and Communities (2017–2018), Shadow Minister of Urban Affairs (2017–2018), Deputy Shadow Minister of the Environment (2015–2016), Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (2006), Minister of State (Sport) (2006), MP for Wellington—Halton Hills, Ontario (2004–present), placed fifth in the 2017 Conservative leadership election[388][389]
Gérard Deltell – Shadow Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (2019–present), Shadow President of the Treasury Board (2017–2019), Shadow Minister of Finance (2016–2017), Shadow Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour (2015–2016), MP for Louis-Saint-Laurent, Quebec (2015–present), Quebec MNA for Chauveau (2008–2015) and leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (2009–2012)[391][392][393]
Pierre Poilievre – Shadow Minister of Finance (2017–present), Shadow Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour (2016–2017), Shadow President of Treasury Board (2015–2016), Minister of Employment and Social Development (2015), Minister for Democratic Reform (2013–2015), MP for Carleton, Ontario (2015–present) and Nepean—Carleton, Ontario (2004–2015)[405][406][407] Though expected to announce his candidacy on 26 January and reported to have formed a campaign team including John Baird as campaign chair and Leo Housakos as Quebec organizer, Poilievre announced on 23 January that he would not run for the leadership.[407]
Lisa Raitt – Deputy Leader of the CPC and Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition (2017–2019), Shadow Minister of Finance (2015–2016), Minister of Transport (2013–2015), Minister of Labour (2010–2013), Minister of Natural Resources (2008–2010), President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority (2002–2008), MP for Milton, Ontario (2015–2019) and Halton, Ontario (2008–2015), placed eighth in the 2017 Conservative leadership election[403]
Brad Trost – Shadow Minister of Canada–U.S. Relations (2015–2016), MP for Saskatoon—University, Saskatchewan (2015–2019) and Saskatoon—Humboldt, Saskatchewan (2004–2015), placed fourth in the 2017 Conservative leadership election[409][410] Initially endorsed Décarie;[365] after Décarie was disqualified, endorsed Sloan and Lewis.[90]
During the first quarter Marilyn Gladu raised $94,734, Rick Peterson raised $35,598 and Rudy Husny raised $28,941. They withdrew from the leadership race during the first quarter.[344]Jim Karahalios raised $294,522 from 1,700 donors, but was disqualified.[344]
Some numbers for the second quarter (April to the end of June 2020) were obtained by The Globe and Mail and confirmed with the campaigns. The Conservative Party has not confirmed any numbers for the second quarter. Finalized numbers must be submitted to Elections Canada at the end of July and should be available some time after.[415]
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