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. The election was conducted by postal ballot from mid-July to August 21, 2020, with the ballots processed and results announced on August 23–24, 2020. The $300,000 entrance fee made it the most expensive leadership race in the history of Canadian politics, at that time.
Four candidates were running for the position: member of parliament and former veterans affairs minister Erin O'Toole, co-founder of the Conservative Party Peter MacKay, Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis and member of parliament Derek Sloan.
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. On April 29, it was announced that the race would proceed by postal ballot with the election itself being rescheduled from June to August. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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". The leadership convention was scheduled for June 27, 2020.
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. 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. On March 19, Husny dropped out, citing an unwillingness to fundraise during a public health emergency. Peterson followed on March 20, criticizing the organizing committee's unwillingness to move the deadlines as unfair.
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. 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. 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."
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". 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.
On June 20, MacKay's campaign dismissed the allegations and called them a "desperate, last ditch strategy" and "mildly amusing." Lall publicly denied the allegations in a post on his personal Twitter account.
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." 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. 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." 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."
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. 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" 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?"
Timeline 2019 October 21 – The 2019 Canadian federal election was held. The Conservatives remained in opposition against a minority Liberal government. 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. 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. 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." December 24 – The party announced that former Deputy Leader Lisa Raitt will co-chair the organizing committee for the leadership race. Dan Nowlan is the committee's other co-chair.
2020 January 13 – Leadership election process officially commences. 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. 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. March 26 – Leadership race suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Party officials said that the schedule for the debates and leadership convention would be revisited on May 1, 2020. 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. May 15 – New deadline to sign up as a member for purposes of voting in the leadership race. Previous deadline was April 17, 2020. June 17 – French-language debate in Toronto, moderated by Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt. June 18 – English-language debate in Toronto, moderated by Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt. June 24 – Etobicoke—Lakeshore Conservative Association debate (online). June 27 – Original date of the leadership election, postponed due to the 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. July 18 – Announcement by the party that ballots have been sent out to members. July 29 – Independent Press Gallery of Canada debate in Toronto. August 21, 5 p.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. August 23–24 – Leadership election results announcement at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa. 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 6:30 p.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.
Full results + Results by round Candidate1st round2nd round3rd roundVotes cast%Points allocated%Votes cast%Points allocated%Votes cast%Points allocated% Erin O'Toole51,25829.39%10,681.4031.60%56,90733.20%11,903.6935.22%90,63558.86%19,271.7457.02% Peter MacKay52,85130.30%11,328.5533.52%54,16531.60%11,756.0134.78%63,35641.14%14,528.2642.98% Leslyn Lewis43,01724.67%6,925.3820.49%60,31635.20%10,140.3030.00% Eliminated Derek Sloan27,27815.64%4,864.6714.39% Eliminated Total 174,404 100% 33,800 100% 171,388 100% 33,800 100% 153,991 100% 33,800 100%
Provincial summary
+ First round results ProvincePeter MackayErin O'TooleLeslyn LewisDerek SloanPoints%Points%Points%Points%Alberta82624.30%1,08431.89%95728.16%53215.65%British Columbia1,28130.50%1,25529.88%1,04724.93%61714.69%Manitoba41429.57%37326.64%36025.71%25318.07%New Brunswick53353.30%15315.30%20420.40%11011.00%Newfoundland and Labrador28240.23%24034.24%11816.83%618.70%Nova Scotia71064.55%14212.91%16014.55%888.00%Ontario4,05633.52%3,41428.21%2,55721.13%2,07317.13%Prince Edward Island20651.50%5513.75%9624.00%4310.75%Quebec2,68534.42%3,53245.28%78110.01%80210.28%Saskatchewan22416.01%36926.38%55439.60%25218.01%Territories11137.00%6521.67%9030.00%3411.33%