By Andrew Thomson | UPDATED September 21, 2022
Pierre Poilievre won 68.15% of the first ballot to convincingly win the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership, with Jean Charest a distant second.
Charest had 16.1-per-cent support under the party's points system, followed by Leslyn Lewis at 9.7%, Roman Baber at 5.0%, and Scott Aitchison at 1.1%
Who will follow Stephen Harper, Andrew Scheer, and Erin O'Toole?
The Conservative Party of Canada's new leader will be announced on Sept. 10 from a list of five candidates: Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, and Pierre Poilievre.
The third leadership race in five years has proven to be a bitter and divisive affair, raising serious questions about what the party stand for and where it is headed in terms of policy and values.
CPAC’s Andrew Thomson looks back at the past six months of campaigning and what’s at stake as the results are announced:
Nearly 418,000 ballots will be counted -- representing 61.6% of the 679,000 eligible Conservative voters. (Another 20,000 ballots were rejected for being incomplete, mostly due to missing ID requirements.)
Conservative Leadership: The Voting
The ballot input process began Thursday. The actual results tabulation takes place Saturday, according to the Conservative party.
Pierre Poilievre’s campaign had claimed more than 300,000 members alone ahead of the June 10 membership deadline, while Patrick Brown’s camp claimed 150,000 members. Jean Charest, meanwhile, claimed his campaign had “the points needed to win” based on “tens of thousands of new members.
CPAC's Andrew Thomson explains the voting process for the Conservative Party of Canada's 2022 leadership race -- and a change to how the points are determined across all 338 federal ridings.
More Coverage
Conservative Leadership: Candidates and Interviews
Conservative Leadership: The Debates
Conservative Leadership: Read and Watch More on Erin O'Toole's Defeat
A third debate was held on Aug. 3 in Ottawa after 65% of party members responding to a survey were in favour of a third official gathering. However, Poilievre and Lewis have announced they will not attend, despite the risk of a party fine.
Patrick Brown was disqualified on July 5 over "serious allegations of wrongdoing ... that appear to violate the financial provisions of the Canada Elections Act."
The party's Leadership Election Organizing Committee said information provided by Brown's campaign "did not satisfy concerns" and that the allegations would be forwarded to Elections Canada.
Brown's campaign called the decision "reprehensible" and "undemocratic," and an attempt by some committee members to ensure a Poilievre victory.
Brown told CPAC's Peter Van Dusen that there was an anonymous complaint that a business was paying a campaign worker, but that the party provided no details or evidence.
"We don't believe our campaign has engaged in anything that is inconsistent with the party rules or Elections Canada rules," Brown said the day after his disqualification.
Watch the full interview:
