The Canadian Press
Published Sunday, August 23, 2020 7:45AM EDT
Last Updated Sunday, August 23, 2020 6:42PM EDT
OTTAWA - The reveal of the winner in the Conservative leadership race was delayed by as much as 90 minutes Sunday night after the party said they weren't able to keep up the count.
The leadership reveal was set to start at 6 p.m. eastern time with remarks by party officials, as well as outgoing leader Andrew Scheer, but was pushed back as the behind-the-scenes team tried to get back on track.
The mail-in ballots all had to be returned by Friday evening, and the count had already been underway.
“We apologize for the delay,” the party said on social media.
“The ballot count has taken longer than expected due to record voter participation and COVID-19 regulations.”
Around 175,000 ballots were received out of nearly 270,000 people eligible to vote.
The party uses a points system to determine the winner, with each riding in the country allocated 100 points, and a candidate needs a majority to win.
Sixteen thousand, nine hundred and one is the magic number the four candidates are aiming for in order to win.
But they also use a ranked ballot, so if no candidate receives that majority after the first count, the candidate with the lowest number of points drops off and his or her supporters' second choices are tallied.
Ahead of the winner's reveal Sunday, candidate Peter MacKay's campaign manager Alex Nuttall said they expect multiple rounds of counting - and some surprises.
“I think we've got the horsepower to get us across the line,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has meant the party has relied entirely on a mail-ballot, and the pandemic has also meant a markedly different plan to reveal the winner.
Gone is the celebratory vibe of thousands of party members packing a massive convention centre and nets filled with blue balloons, ready to descend when the winner is declared.
Instead, a small convention room in downtown Ottawa has been converted to a broadcast studio, where race organizers and Scheer will give a speech, while the four candidates remain in their own rooms as the results roll in. Those were scheduled to be read out by prominent Tory personalities in their home provinces beamed in via videoconference.
The winner faces two major challenges right out of the gate.
One: the party is the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, and in exactly a month's time, the minority Liberal government will deliver a throne speech laying out a post-pandemic recovery plan.
The vote on the speech is a confidence motion and the Liberals have all but dared the Tories to try and bring them down.
Two: the new leader will have to unite the party after a fractious leadership contest also dramatically impacted by the pandemic itself.
“The race was as chippy as I've seen in all my years of politics,” said Jenni Byrne, a longtime Conservative who has run past federal election campaigns.
“Party unity is job one.”
Four candidates are vying for the job, only the third time in its history the party has chosen a new leader.
MacKay, Leslyn Lewis, Erin O'Toole and Derek Sloan each sought over the course of the campaign to position themselves as the party's best hope going forward, not just to defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but to refresh the Conservative brand in Canada.
In their respective thank-you messages to supporters posted over the weekend, all said they believe a bright future for the party lies ahead.
“I will come out of this contest proud of our party, hopeful for the future, and confident that conservative values, ideals, principles and beliefs are a force for positive constructive change in our country,” MacKay said in a video on social media.
Should MacKay win, he'll face a third challenge: he doesn't have a seat in the Commons, and will need to appoint a leader there whose job it will be to respond to the throne speech.
O'Toole, a current MP whose campaign took pointed attacks at MacKay even in the final days, said no matter who wins, they will have his support.
“We are a family. And this leadership was just a very long Thanksgiving dinner,” he wrote in an email to supporters Friday night.
“On Sunday night, we unite. On Sunday night, four teams become one. The Liberals won't stand a chance.”
Lewis, the Toronto lawyer and relative political neophyte, ended her campaign with nearly $2 million in donations. Considering many told her she'd never even make the $300,000 entry fee, the donations send a message, she said.
“We have shocked the pundits, many in our own party, and Canadians right across the country who had forgotten what happens when you give the grassroots a real voice,” she said.
The fundraising totals - MacKay at over $3 million, O'Toole over $2 million as well and Sloan at around $900,000 - came even as the candidates campaigned during a period of mass upheaval in the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the delay of the race itself; the vote was originally scheduled for June but punted as efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus shut down the country.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2020.
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