PC leadership hopefuls tout membership gains as campaign moves to next phase

Conservative leadership hopeful Jean Charest says he has secured the requisite number of points to win the race while Pierre Polievre’s campaign claims to have signed up more than 300,000 new members.

“We have a confirmed path to victory. Based on our recruitment, we have the points we need to win the leadership race,” Charest said in a statement, noting the campaign has recruited tens of thousands of new members and re-engaged thousands who have not been involved since the Harper years.

The campaign says it outperformed membership targets in Atlantic Canada, Vancouver, Calgary, Rural New Brunswick, urban Ontario, and Quebec. “These are key areas for vote growth, delivering the most impact on the 100 points per riding system.”

Jenni Byrne, a member of Polievre’s campaign team, tweeted that almost 312,000 Canadians had been added through its membership website.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was one of the first to tout his membership drive success, tweeting out Friday that they had “smashed” their goal and signed up more than 150,000 new members. “And they’re still pouring in,” he wrote.

“We sold tens of thousands of memberships in many of the ridings across the country where Conservatives have struggled to build support in the past,” he said in a statement. “These ridings had very low membership numbers at the start of the leadership race, but not anymore. We dominated them!”

The pronouncements came as a midnight deadline to secure party memberships to vote in the election for the next Conservative leader in September passed.


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While a final list must be confirmed to all candidates by the end of July, the party’s leadership election organizing committee said late last month it had already broken records for how many new members candidates have drawn in ahead of the June 3 cutoff.

“The party membership in the past two leadership races has been around 270,000 people, of which only about 60 per cent vote,” said veteran conservative campaigner Melanie Paradis, who has remained neutral in the race.

“From what I’ve heard from party sources, the number will now be north of 400,000. Which means that we’ve probably had like 250,000 renewals and 150,000 new members.”

But not all memberships are created equal, at least when it comes to the final vote. Each riding is worth a certain number of points, so candidates have had to be strategic about where they grow their base.

“It is now confirmed that there will be no winner on the first ballot,” said Charest campaign chair Mike Coates. “This is far from the coronation many were expecting at the onset of this race.”

Attention will now turn to getting out the vote and attempting to persuade their opponents’ supporters to switch allegiances – or at least put their name second on the ballot.

Because of the ranked ballot system, voters’ second choice could play a major role in determining the next leader.

Between the ranked ballots and the points system used on voting day, it can be difficult to get a sense of who is pulling ahead in the race.

Poilievre, Brown, and Charest will also joined on the ranked ballot by Leslyn Lewis, Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber.

The new leader will be named in Ottawa on Sept. 10.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report

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