The pugnacious Pierre Poilievre, who campaigned in favor of freedom and denouncing the “gatekeepers” who deprive the average citizen of it, was elected leader of the Conservative Party. His victory was unequivocal. The MP from the Ottawa region collected 68% of the points in the first round.
The former premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, bowed, coming very far second with only 16% of the points.
The Conservative Party elects its leaders by a point system: each of the 338 federal ridings has 100 points, distributed among the candidates in proportion to their votes.
The room seemed won over to Pierre Poilievre. The posters were brandished. Shouts of joy rang out. A few “Freedom” were also chanted.
Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Charest quickly emerged as leaders in this race, which began in February when the former ran three days after former chef Erin O’Toole was ousted from his post by its deputies.
Jean Charest campaigned by resuming his progressive-conservative heritage, while Pierre Poilievre placed himself more on the right, notably courting citizens angry with the “system” and with the health restrictions of the pandemic.
An expected result
The Charest team said, before the announcement of the result of the vote on Saturday afternoon, that it was satisfied with the participation rate of its supporters in Quebec, but confided that the vote did not turn out to be as high as hoped in Ontario.
Camp Poilievre meanwhile was all smiles as they arrived at the Ottawa Convention Center, pleased with the turnout of their supporters. The candidate had attracted, for months, hundreds or even thousands of people to his rallies and collected more than 4 million dollars in donations.
The defeat had been expected for two weeks in the opposing camp. Mr. Charest met his volunteers and organizers on Saturday afternoon and was moved when he thanked them. However, he seemed calm at the end of a six-month leadership campaign, according to a source who was present at the meeting.
Mr. Charest did not want to address the media when he arrived at the rally on Saturday evening.
Pierre Poilievre was not seen among the activists before the start of the evening.
The two candidates were seated opposite each other in the room. In 2017, in a previous leadership race, Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier were side by side when the result was announced and shook hands.
Pro-life MP Leslyn Lewis came third, earning 9.69% of the points; the former Ontario MP who was excluded from Doug Ford’s caucus for opposing health measures during the pandemic collected 5%; and Scott Aitchison received 1%.
Nearly 438,000 Conservatives voted for their next leader, out of nearly 679,000 party members — a record number, which testifies to the enthusiasm generated by the race. In total, nearly 418,000 valid ballots were counted. The majority of the remaining approximately 20,000 were discarded because they lacked proof of identity.
The 64% turnout is the same as the last leadership race in 2020.