2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election

2017 Conservative leadership election

← 2004 May 27, 2017 2020 →
Opinion polls
Turnout	54.57%[1]
Candidate Andrew Scheer Maxime Bernier Erin O'Toole Final ballot 17,222 50.95% 16,578 49.05% Eliminated First ballot 7,376 21.82% 9,763 28.89% 3,601 10.65%
Results of first round Results of 13th (final) round
Leader before election Rona Ambrose (interim) Elected Leader Andrew Scheer

The 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was held on May 27, 2017. Party members chose Andrew Scheer as leader, replacing Stephen Harper, who led the Conservative Party of Canada as its leader from 2004 following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties. Harper led the party through five federal elections: the party increased its seat count in the House of Commons in 2004, formed two minority governments in 2006, and 2008, and then a majority government in 2011. Following the defeat of the party in the 2015 federal election on October 19, Harper tendered his resignation as party leader.^[3] In a statement, Conservative Party President John Walsh said he had spoken to Harper, "and he has instructed me to reach out to the newly elected parliamentary caucus to appoint an interim Leader and to implement the leadership selection process."^[3]

259,010 party members were eligible to vote in the leadership contest.^[4] 141,000 members cast a vote. According to raw voting figures, Scheer received 62,593 votes on the final ballot compared to 55,544 votes for Bernier with 23,000 voters who had voted in the first round ranking neither Scheer or Bernier in their ranked ballot. Votes were apportioned among ridings so that each riding was allocated 100 points, regardless of the number of voters, resulting in 17,222.20 points (50.95%) for Scheer and 16,577.80 points (49.05%) for Bernier.^[5]

Subsequent to the election, fourth placed candidate Brad Trost and his campaign were fined $50,000 by the Conservative Party of Canada for allegedly leaking the party's membership list to the National Firearms Association. Trost denied that he or any of his staff leaked the list.^[6] On February 11, 2019, the Conservative Party released a statement from its Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) which concluded: "In short, LEOC does not believe there is evidence that the Trost Campaign was responsible for leaking of the membership list...."^[7] The fine was therefore removed from the Brad Trost Campaign. Trost went on to lose renomination as the party candidate for his riding during the 43rd Federal election on March 10, 2018, to Corey Tochor, former speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature.^[8]

Criticism has been raised about how the party memberships were handled, with some prominent members saying they never received a ballot, even after contacting the party about it.^[9]

In addition, the result of the leadership race and party handling was questioned by some supporters of such as runner-up Maxime Bernier and fifth place candidate Kellie Leitch due to discrepancies in the final ballot count, specifically a gap between the number of ballots cast and the announced result – a 7,466 vote discrepancy, which is greater than Andrew Scheer's 7,049 votes margin of victory in the final round. There was criticism over the exact role of the accounting firm Deloitte during the voting process – a deal revealed that Deloitte was not specifically tasked with auditing the vote but "observe" the counting process.^[10][11] It was also reported that some of Brad Trost's supporters contravened the Elections Act and party membership rules by offering incentives to vote. Dimitri Soudas, a former Stephen Harper aide, pointed out that it violated election rules and it benefited Scheer's campaign but the ballots have been destroyed so the results stood.^[12]

Many considered Scheer's victory as an upset, given Bernier's consistent frontrunner status in the polls.^[13]