Conservative leadership race enters final push

Last Updated Monday, June 22, 2020 OTTAWA -- The four Conservative leadership candidates are kicking off the final stretch of COVID-19-style campaigning, with just two months to go before all ballots are cast. After going head-to-head in two debates on June 17 and 18 the leadership hopefuls will continue to try to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Erin O’Toole, Peter MacKay, Leslyn Lewis, and Derek Sloan battled it out in French on June 17, doing their best to deliver their platform pitches despite not one being fully bilingual. On June 18, Toronto played host to the first and only English-language debate. Co-chairs of the Conservative Party leadership election organizing committee Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt were chosen to moderate. Under the original leadership race timeline, the party was set to hold its debates in April, but those were cancelled when the entire race was put on pause due to the pandemic. Given the public health concerns at play, there was no live audience, and physical distancing measures were in place. Another pandemic-prompted workaround, the voting process will be conducted through mail-in ballots, which party members need to send back to the party by August 21.

The race resumed on April 29 “with adjustments to accommodate current circumstances,” a month after it was initially suspended, with LEOC saying at the time that it wouldn’t be possible to meet all deadlines necessary in time for the originally-planned June 27 announcement of a winner. While all ballots need to be submitted by August 21, it’s yet to be determined how quickly they will be scrutinized and a winner declared. The date and format of how the party will announce its new leader once the results are tallied will also depend on the health guidelines and government orders in place at the time.