OTTAWA — The Conservative Party of Canada announced on Saturday night that Pierre Poilievre won the leadership race.
The party said it would be counting nearly 418,000 ballots out of some 678,700 eligible voters.
Poilievre secured victory on the first ballot.
Here is how the ballot process works.
Ranked choices
Unlike in a general election, when voters can only make one choice on their ballot, the Conservative party picks its new leader through a ranked-ballot system.
That means members ranked their preferred choice for leader from first to last. There were initially six candidates in the race before Patrick Brown was disqualified by the party, so all six names will appear on the ballots.
The party said members who marked Brown as a first choice on their ballots would automatically have their votes go toward their second-choice candidates.
A candidate wins when they receive more than 50 per cent of the points. If that doesn't happen in the first count, the candidate who receives the lowest number of points will be eliminated.
When a candidate is eliminated, the votes they received from members who ranked them first will be transferred to the candidates those members ranked second.
On Saturday, Poilievre crossed the threshold on the first ballot, with 68 per cent of the points. Jean Charest had 16 per cent, Leslyn Lewis had just under 10 per cent, Roman Baber had about five per cent and Scott Aitchison had about one per cent.
Points:
The party's membership base is split into 338 electoral districts in the same way the country is divided into federal ridings.
Each of these districts is assigned points. A recent change to how the Conservative party conducts leadership races stipulates that in order for a riding to be allotted 100 points, which is the maximum, it must have at least 100 members.
In ridings that have fewer than 100 party members, there will be one point per vote cast. Candidates were encouraged to sell party memberships to supporters living in areas that have low membership numbers.
Candidates are assigned a point total based on their percentage of the vote in each riding.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2022.
The Canadian Press
