Key Takeaways:
- Despite being disqualified by the Conservative Party of Canada from being the party’s next leader, Patrick Brown will still be on the ballot.
- Batherson said the party has no plans to impede the process, although the race has undergone substantial changes.
Patrick Brown will still be on the ballot despite being disqualified by the Conservative Party of Canada from becoming the party’s next leader.
The president of the Conservative Party, Rob Batherson, claimed in an interview with CTV News Channel that they “just don’t have the time to perform a reprint” of hundreds of thousands of ballots and still reach the party’s deadline of September 10 for the announcement of a new leader.
The party said last week that around 675,000 members, a historic amount far beyond previous leadership campaigns, will be able to vote in this year’s election.
According to Yaroslav Baran, the party’s spokesperson for the leadership election, the first batch of mail-in ballots with all six names was already distributed to Conservative supporters who held memberships before the leadership race.
Over the next weeks, the party will continue mailing ballot packets in batches, with a deadline of September 6 for all ballots to be returned.
Also read: Over the long Canada Day weekend, Ottawa police make 12 arrests and file 50 charges
The deadline set by the party for candidates to turn in the necessary fees and membership signatures to be verified candidates and appear on the ballot was April 29. Their print schedules for the ballots were influenced by this date.
In a late-night statement on Tuesday, the Conservative Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) stated that it had decided to disqualify Brown due to “severe allegations of fraud” involving federal election officials. Concerns were expressed about whether Brown would still have been on the ballot.
Brown defended his campaign against what he called “phantom” claims in an interview with CTV News’ Evan Solomon on Wednesday, saying it “did nothing illegal.” Brown also stated that he was considering his options for contesting his exclusion from the event. The party’s bylaws, according to Batherson, “do not provide for appealing a disqualification judgment,” CTV News reported.
The party has held leadership elections in the past, with names of candidates no longer running appearing on the ballot. This is not the first time it has happened.
2017 saw former presidential candidate Kevin O’Leary withdraw from the contest after the ballots had been produced.
“The ballots will be distributed, just as they were in 2017 when Kevin O’Leary’s name was on them, and they will include second and third choices. That will be put into effect when a contender withdraws from the race, “Batherson stated on Wednesday.
Despite the significant changes in the race, Batherson stated that the party has no plans to stall the procedure in any manner. All deadlines will remain in place, including the winner’s announcement at a gathering on September 10 in Ottawa.
According to Conservative strategist and president of Texture Communications Melanie Paradis, it will be interesting to see how Conservative party members fill out their ranked ballot in light of Brown’s continued presence on the ballot. Brown had earlier claimed that his campaign had gathered almost 150,000 new supporters.
“It will be fascinating to see how this plays out. These voters, where do they go? Do the individuals he hired ever do anything? Or do they intend to stop? The math for the points in each riding would then be radically altered, according to Paradis.
It’s a very challenging algorithm. One member, one vote is not a particularly simple set of guidelines. We have it weighted by riding, which makes it very challenging to foresee how this can affect the race.
Source: CTV News
Get Canada and Yukon’s top News, Market News, and other News of USA and worldwide only on yukonweekly.com
