(OTTAWA) The Conservative Party of Canada has confirmed that six candidates have made it to the leadership race after clearing the final hurdles to get their names on the ballot.
Updated yesterday at 9:30 p.m.
Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative finance critic whose rallies have at times drawn thousands, and Jean Charest, the former Quebec premier loved by more centrist Tories, are both candidates in the race for the succession. by Erin O’Toole.
So are Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ontario, who promotes religious freedom and makes targeted promises to ethnic communities, and Leslyn Lewis, the socially conservative rural MP from Ontario.
Scott Aitchison, the Ontario MP who pledged to end supply management, and Roman Baber, the independent Ontario MPP kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus for his opposition to lockdowns during the COVID pandemic -19, are also in the game.
Candidates had to submit the full required $300,000 in registration fees and a compliance deposit along with their signature lists of 500 party members by last Friday for verification.
The Conservatives will announce their new leader on September 10.
Leona Alleslev, a former MP in Ontario who joined the Conservative ranks in 2018 after turning her back on the Liberals, announced last week that she would not be able to raise the necessary funds in time.
British Columbia MP Marc Dalton, who had also taken the previous step, also announced that he had failed to raise the rest of the amount required to obtain a place on the ballot.
Three other aspiring candidates who had passed the previous stage do not understand why the Conservative Party has not evaluated their candidacy, while the management insists that it has nothing to do with their political positions.
Saskatchewan businessman Joseph Bourgault, who supported the convoy of truckers that crippled Ottawa earlier this year, revealed in a Twitter post Monday that his team had raised more than $367,000. “We want explanations,” he wrote.
Joel Etienne, a former candidate who represented the Conservative Party, said in a statement that his team is preparing “a formal challenge” which will be sent to the party leadership after he unsuccessfully tried to submit the money raised and his list of signatures last Friday.
Grant Abraham, a consultant who was a Conservative candidate in the United Kingdom in 2019, also indicated in a press release that he was awaiting “precise explanations” from the party concerning the rejection of his candidacy when he claims to have submitted to time the money and the number of signatures needed.
CCP Chief Executive Wayne Benson responded that all aspiring candidates eliminated from the race were informed of the specific reasons why their application did not meet the established criteria.
“Final checks were based on the criteria established under the rules of the race and not on the political views of the aspiring candidates,” Benson insisted in a written statement.