The Conservative Party of Canada elects its leaders through a process known as a leadership election. The most recent leadership election was held in 2022.
Since 2004, the party has elected its leaders on a one member, one vote basis using a ranked ballot. The process is weighted so that each riding is allocated 100 points, divided proportionately among candidates based on their percentage of the vote in that riding.[1] This process was first used in the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership election, a predecessor party of the modern Conservative Party.
See main article: 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. Held in Toronto, Ontario on March 20, 2004.
| Candidate | 1st round | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | |||
| Stephen Harper | 67,143 | 68.9% | 17,296 | 56.2% | ||
| Belinda Stronach | 22,286 | 22.9% | 10,613 | 34.5% | ||
| Tony Clement | 7,968 | 8.2% | 2,887 | 9.4 | ||
| Total | 174,404 | 100% | 33,800 | 100% | ||
See main article: 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. Held in Toronto, Ontario on May 27, 2017.
| Candidate | Round 1 | Round 13 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | % | Points | % | ||
| Andrew Scheer | 7,375.79 | 21.82% | 17,222.20 | 50.95% | |
| Maxime Bernier | 9,763.32 | 28.89% | 16,577.80 | 49.05% | |
| Erin O'Toole | 3,600.72 | 10.65% | |||
| Brad Trost | 2,820.87 | 8.35% | |||
| Michael Chong | 2,552.47 | 7.55% | |||
| Kellie Leitch | 2,366.09 | 7.00% | |||
| Pierre Lemieux | 2,495.71 | 7.38% | |||
| Lisa Raitt | 1,127.93 | 3.34% | |||
| Steven Blaney | 426.37 | 1.26% | |||
| Chris Alexander | 379.10 | 1.12% | |||
| Kevin O'Leary | 361.21 | 1.07% | |||
| Rick Peterson | 220.58 | 0.65% | |||
| Andrew Saxton | 169.94 | 0.50% | |||
| Deepak Obhrai | 139.90 | 0.41% | |||
See main article: 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. Conducted by mail-in ballot due August 21, with results announced on August 23-24.
| Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | Votes cast | % | Points allocated | % | |||
| Erin O'Toole | 51,258 | 29.39% | 10,681.40 | 31.60% | 56,907 | 33.20% | 11,903.69 | 35.22% | 90,635 | 58.86% | 19,271.74 | 57.02% | ||
| Peter MacKay | 52,851 | 30.30% | 11,328.55 | 33.52% | 54,165 | 31.60% | 11,756.01 | 34.78% | 63,356 | 41.14% | 14,528.26 | 42.98% | ||
| Leslyn Lewis | 43,017 | 24.67% | 6,925.38 | 20.49% | 60,316 | 35.20% | 10,140.30 | 30.00% | Eliminated | |||||
| Derek Sloan | 27,278 | 15.64% | 4,864.67 | 14.39% | Eliminated | |||||||||
| Total | 174,404 | 100% | 33,800 | 100% | 171,388 | 100% | 33,800 | 100% | 153,991 | 100% | 33,800 | 100% | ||
See main article: 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. Following the ousting of previous leader Erin O’Toole, a leadership election to choose his successor was held.
On September 10, 2022, the Conservative Party announced that Pierre Poilievre had won the election in the first round with 68% of points.
Poilievre won the leadership election in a landslide, carrying 330 of 338 ridings with at least a plurality. The only other candidate to win a plurality in any ridings was Jean Charest, whose support mostly came from Quebec, though Poilievre still won 72 of the province's 78 ridings. Charest won his former federal riding of Sherbrooke, all other candidates losing their ridings to Poilievre.[3]