I’m guessing the vote required members to travel to Alberta in the middle of winter and vote in-person in order to count. There as no way this was going to swing any other way.
Voting was only in-person and for delegates. The CPC have over 600,000 members nationally. They had under 3,000 eligible to vote on leadership, so <0.5% of members choose the leader.
Tells you a lot about the party.
Compare that to the other party also about to select a new leader, the NDP. In their process, 100% of members get a vote on their leader, no matter where they are in the country. People just had to join before January 28, and fees I think are as low as a dollar for people who couldn’t afford it.
Is this true? I can’t find a source about only delegates being allowed to vote. An ex-conversative friend of mine was saying that they usually send the ballots out by mail to any member in good standing.
Edit: doing more reading I don’t think its 100% fair to compare this to NDP election. This was a leadership review not a leadership election. If PP lost this then a leadership election would happen that works basically the same as NDP leadership election in terms of who’s allowed to vote. Second the NDP has similar rules about delegates to NDP conventions as far as I can tell. You can read both their constitutions here
Yeah, in 2022 they didn’t use delegates and Poilievre won with 67% from several hundred thousand votes, but this time it was back to delegates again, as they did under Harper. Harper’s last win was 84% of 2,900 delegates. The exact number hasn’t been released yet for this one I think, but estimates are 2,500 or so. Reporting is that 95% of delegates voted and 87.4% went for Poilievre. So, probably around 2,080 votes total for Poilievre.
That’s why if you look at the coverage over the last few days, you’ll read about Poilievre meeting with delegates behind the scenes in closed door meetings and trying to shore up votes. You’re not doing that with hundreds of thousands of voters, but you can with such a small number deciding your future.
We’ll probably get the exact numbers some time soon, but it’ll be in that ballpark.
The 2022 election was an actual leadership election. This was just a leadership review. People who did vote weren’t voting for a new leader. They were voting on if they still think PP should be leader. There wasn’t candidates to vote for. It was a yes or no question. If he lost this election there would be a leadership election similar to the 2022 one you reference. The 2022 election was triggered by the previous leader stepping down just like the NDP leadership election has been triggered by Jagmeet stepping down.
I do think the system is a bit strange that they have a leadership review and it’s handled by delagtes who only get picked if they are voted in at meetings in the different electoral districts. Makes it easy to stay in as leader if you can convince the right people to come.
But again what I said before stands. If the NDP did a leadership review at a convention they could do the same thing as the conversatives here cause the constitution allows for it.
Ah, okay. That makes sense. Appreciate the correction.
Not a great representative process for the NDP either in leadership reviews. The delegate system isn’t great. Having a tiny percentage of the membership and only the most dedicated shouldn’t be taken as wide support of the party membership. With modern tech it really shouldn’t be so hard to do with more direct representation.
But, I guess the voters will have their say when a real election comes and the party will deal with whatever the consequence is.
Looking back now at the last NDP leadership review, I see Jagmeet got 81%, and then lost his seat and the party’s prior gains.
I’m guessing the vote required members to travel to Alberta in the middle of winter and vote in-person in order to count. There as no way this was going to swing any other way.
Voting was only in-person and for delegates. The CPC have over 600,000 members nationally. They had under 3,000 eligible to vote on leadership, so <0.5% of members choose the leader.
Tells you a lot about the party.
Compare that to the other party also about to select a new leader, the NDP. In their process, 100% of members get a vote on their leader, no matter where they are in the country. People just had to join before January 28, and fees I think are as low as a dollar for people who couldn’t afford it.
Night and day in terms of democratic process.
Is this true? I can’t find a source about only delegates being allowed to vote. An ex-conversative friend of mine was saying that they usually send the ballots out by mail to any member in good standing.
Edit: doing more reading I don’t think its 100% fair to compare this to NDP election. This was a leadership review not a leadership election. If PP lost this then a leadership election would happen that works basically the same as NDP leadership election in terms of who’s allowed to vote. Second the NDP has similar rules about delegates to NDP conventions as far as I can tell. You can read both their constitutions here
https://xfer.ndp.ca/2023/Documents/Constitution EN-2021.pdf
https://cpcassets.conservative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/30091347/c5855d471341cf9.pdf
Yeah, in 2022 they didn’t use delegates and Poilievre won with 67% from several hundred thousand votes, but this time it was back to delegates again, as they did under Harper. Harper’s last win was 84% of 2,900 delegates. The exact number hasn’t been released yet for this one I think, but estimates are 2,500 or so. Reporting is that 95% of delegates voted and 87.4% went for Poilievre. So, probably around 2,080 votes total for Poilievre.
That’s why if you look at the coverage over the last few days, you’ll read about Poilievre meeting with delegates behind the scenes in closed door meetings and trying to shore up votes. You’re not doing that with hundreds of thousands of voters, but you can with such a small number deciding your future.
We’ll probably get the exact numbers some time soon, but it’ll be in that ballpark.
The 2022 election was an actual leadership election. This was just a leadership review. People who did vote weren’t voting for a new leader. They were voting on if they still think PP should be leader. There wasn’t candidates to vote for. It was a yes or no question. If he lost this election there would be a leadership election similar to the 2022 one you reference. The 2022 election was triggered by the previous leader stepping down just like the NDP leadership election has been triggered by Jagmeet stepping down.
I do think the system is a bit strange that they have a leadership review and it’s handled by delagtes who only get picked if they are voted in at meetings in the different electoral districts. Makes it easy to stay in as leader if you can convince the right people to come.
But again what I said before stands. If the NDP did a leadership review at a convention they could do the same thing as the conversatives here cause the constitution allows for it.
Ah, okay. That makes sense. Appreciate the correction.
Not a great representative process for the NDP either in leadership reviews. The delegate system isn’t great. Having a tiny percentage of the membership and only the most dedicated shouldn’t be taken as wide support of the party membership. With modern tech it really shouldn’t be so hard to do with more direct representation.
But, I guess the voters will have their say when a real election comes and the party will deal with whatever the consequence is.
Looking back now at the last NDP leadership review, I see Jagmeet got 81%, and then lost his seat and the party’s prior gains.
Not to mention the Ontario PCs are having their party convention right now as well—meaning many members won’t attend in Calgary for the vote.