OTTAWA—Some Conservatives are calling for a review of the party’s leadership selection process after Andrew Scheer wound up winning with the support of less than 50 percent of voting party members.
The Tories used a preferential system to choose a new leader from among the 14 contenders on the ballot. Voters could rank their choices from first to tenth, although they were not required to rank more than one or two if they so desired.
On each ballot, as the least popular candidate was eliminated, his or her supporters’ second and subsequent choices were counted; that process of redistributing votes continued until Scheer edged past Maxime Bernier on the 13th and final ballot.
According to figures released by the party, just over 141,000 Conservatives cast ballots during the leadership vote. But by the 13th round, just over 118,000 ballots were still in play, with Scheer taking 62,593 of those votes to Bernier’s 55,544.
That means 23,000 voters hadn’t ranked either Scheer or Bernier among their top 10 choices and their ballots were thus discarded by the time the field was winnowed down to the two finalists.
Hence, Scheer won with 44 percent of the 141,000 party members who took part in the leadership vote.
Calgary Conservative MP Ron Liepert said the problem wasn’t with the ranked ballot system so much as it was with the unwieldy number of candidates.
