Party sources tell CBC News that they expect over 600,000 Conservative members to be eligible to vote in the ongoing leadership race, as the contest enters a new phase.
Composite illustration featuring Conservative leadership candidates Pierre Poilievre, top left, Leslyn Lewis, top centre, Jean Charest, top right, Roman Baber, bottom left, Patrick Brown, bottom centre, and Scott Aitchison.
The party has not yet released an official count for how many members have joined and will be able to vote in the race, which concludes Sept. 10. The chief returning officer for the election must provide a preliminary list of voters to the candidates sometime after the cutoff, which was midnight last night. A final list must be provided no later than July 29.
A source close to Poilievre, who spoke to CBC News on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak publicly, said the campaign had blown past its goal of selling 175,000 memberships across the country. "When this leadership race started, no one thought we had a shot. Now, we're on the cusp of victory," he said in a campaign email.
"Based on our recruitment, we have the points we need to win the leadership race," Charest said in a campaign release. Former Quebec premier Jean Charest is shown during the launch of his campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada at Wildrose Brewery in Calgary on March 10.By comparison, there were 269,469 members eligible to vote in the 2020 election that crowned Erin O'Toole — which, at the time, was a record that easily dwarfed the 127,000 Liberal members who were eligible to vote in that party's 2013 leadership election.
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