Party election in Canada
In 2020, the Conservative Party of Canada held a leadership election held to elect a new party leader. The election was prompted by Andrew Scheer's announcement in December 2019 that he would resign as party leader. The election was conducted by postal ballot from mid-July to 21 August 2020, with the ballots processed and results announced on 23–24 August 2020. The $300,000 entrance fee made it the most expensive leadership race in the history of Canadian politics.
Four candidates were running for the position: member of parliament and former veterans affairs minister Erin O'Toole, co-founder of the Conservative Party Peter MacKay, Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis and member of parliament Derek Sloan.
The election was originally scheduled for 27 June 2020, but on March 26, the party suspended the race due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic crisis in Canada. On April 29, it was announced that the race would proceed by postal ballot with the election itself being rescheduled from June to August. MacKay led the first ballot with 33.52 per cent by a narrow margin of around 2 per cent. O'Toole subsequently led on the second ballot and won on the third ballot, becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party.
Campaign.
Background.
On 21 October 2019, the 2019 Canadian federal election was held. The Conservatives remained in opposition against a minority Liberal government. Under the Conservative Party's constitution, an election loss results in a leadership review at the next party convention. The following day, Scheer announced his intention to remain leader of the party.
As early as 23 October, there were reports that party members were already privately voicing dissatisfaction with Scheer's leadership, and suggestions that he could face a leadership challenge at the next party convention in April. By the end of the month, Conservative figures were making their criticism public, and an online petition was launched that called for Scheer to resign. Former MP and cabinet minister Peter MacKay described the election as "like having a breakaway on an open net and missing the net"; he attributed the loss to Scheer's socially conservative views, which he said "hung around [his] neck like a stinking albatross" and distracted from other policies and issues. MacKay's comments additionally fuelled speculation that he was vying for the leadership.
On 6 November, Scheer met with the Conservative caucus for the first time since the election, where they discussed the federal election and why the party failed to win. Scheer attributed the loss not to policy, but poor communication. During the meeting, the caucus voted against adopting the provisions of the Reform Act; as adopting them would have allowed the caucus to begin the process of ousting Scheer, his leadership was seen as safe until the April convention. However, criticism did not abate; a report in the "Toronto Star" cited calls for Scheer's resignation from within the business community, energy sector and several high-profile party insiders.
On 12 December, Scheer announced that he was stepping down as leader, pending the election of his successor. He also said he would stay on as MP for Regina—Qu'Appelle "for the near future". The leadership convention was scheduled for 27 June 2020.
Impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic affected the timing of the leadership election. On 12 March, Peter MacKay, Erin O'Toole, Rick Peterson and Leslyn Lewis suspended all public campaign events, while Marilyn Gladu "assess[ed] events and activities on a daily and event-by-event basis", due to public health guidelines. The next day, 13 March, Gladu, Rudy Husny and Rick Peterson called for either the race to be postponed or for entry deadlines to be pushed back. On 19 March, Husny dropped out, citing an unwillingness to fundraise during a public health emergency. Peterson followed on 20 March, criticizing the organizing committee's unwillingness to move the deadlines as unfair.
On 26 March, the Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) postponed the race, as well as cancelling debates planned for April and pushing back the membership deadline to 15 May. The LEOC did not set a new date, and said they would revisit the decision on 1 May. On 29 April, the LEOC announced the resumption of the contest, with the vote taking place entirely by mail-in ballot and without a convention. No definitive date was set for when the results would be announced, but the LEOC clarified that the results would be announced "as soon as those ballots can be properly processed and examined by scrutineers while respecting any health guidelines in place at that time."
Allegations of hacking.
On 19 June, Erin O'Toole accused MacKay's campaign of theft of confidential campaign data and strategy including Zoom conference videos after discovering that their "systems were hacked earlier this week". Later that day, O'Toole filed a formal complaint and requested that the RCMP, OPP, and Toronto Police Service investigate Peter MacKay's campaign and his senior campaign staff member Jamie Lall.
On 20 June, MacKay's campaign dismissed the allegations and called them a "desperate, last ditch strategy" and "mildly amusing." Lall publicly denied the allegations in a post on his personal Twitter account.
On 22 June, the "National Post" reported that the O'Toole campaign received a confession letter from MP staff member implicating Lall and describing him as a "senior regional adviser to the Peter MacKay campaign." Later in the day, the RCMP released a statement saying they have begun an investigation into O'Toole's allegations against the MacKay campaign, while Lall stated that he is "aggressively pursuing" legal action against the O'Toole campaign. MacKay spokesperson Chisholm Pothier told CBC News Tuesday that the O'Toole team sent its confidential passwords and logins to more than 300 MPs and their political staff members — something Pothier said was done "negligently and with no reasonable expectation of privacy." In response, O'Toole campaign manager Fred DeLorey tweeted, "this is a willful attempt at deception. There is a big diff between sending invitees a code for specific meetings and someone breaking into the private admin and stealing all of the files. The former is standard operations, the latter is a crime. That is what is being investigated."
On 24 June, an ex-staff member to MP Greg McLean admitted to trying to leak Erin O'Toole's confidential video records, but says the MacKay campaign turned him down, according to Toronto Star's Alex Boutilier and Kieran Leavitt. MP McLean later tweeted, "sadly, this is completely inconsistent with what was told to me and senior O'Toole officials by this young man. I know not to trust this. The police investigation will determine the truth" Erin O'Toole Campaign staff member Anthony Koch also tweeted, "how do you explain the Calgary and midtown Toronto IP addresses that accessed the zoom admin account illegally multiple times over the course of a week and downloaded over 140 unique videos?"
References.
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