Some conservatives predict that it will be the largest number of Canadians who have joined a political party at any time in Canadian history.
Various sources in the Conservative Party of Canada say that since the current contest to choose a new party leader began, more than 400,000 people have joined the party, renewed their memberships or are existing members, which gives them right to vote in management. career.
“There is an unprecedented interest in joining the Conservative Party of Canada,” party chairman Rob Batherson told CBC News.
“I think people are very motivated right now in this post-pandemic time period. They’re interested in getting involved in politics and changing things in Canada,” said veteran Conservative strategist Melanie Paradis.
Batherson did not confirm the 400,000 figure or reveal the current number of party members. The deadline to register new members to vote in the leadership race is today. Members can be purchased online until 23:59 ET, while other members must be received at the Conservative Party headquarters before 17:00 ET.
Batherson said he does not expect the final count to be confirmed until many days from now.
“There’s a process to challenge the names on the list,” he said. “So that’s why we don’t disclose the numbers until much later than the deadline, because we want to make sure we get accurate information in the public domain.”
When Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership in 2013, the party had 127,000 registered members.
“There is a lot of backlog”
In 2020, the CPC set a record for new and existing members in a leadership race: 269,469 in total. Party experts say this year’s race is expected to significantly exceed that figure.
Batherson said he expects the final tally to grow sharply in the last days before Friday’s cut because the campaign teams themselves often feature a large number of new members.
“Sometimes campaigns slow down and so we need to be prepared for a major influx before June 3,” he said.
Batherson said the party has had to extend its processing hours in the evenings and on weekends to accommodate all new members.
Paradis said the party is lagging behind in prosecuting members. “As a result, there is a lot of backlog,” he said. “I understand it’s a month late now, which is important.”
Batherson insisted the party would do everything possible to ensure a new leader was announced on September 10th.
With the clock ticking to the deadline, all six candidates have struggled to score followers through social media and in person.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre visits St. John’s, NL to gather support for his candidacy for party leadership. (Mark Quinn / CBC)
Addressing a large crowd in Saskatoon on Tuesday night, candidate Pierre Poilievre encouraged his supporters to join his neighbors, friends and family.
Candidate Leslyn Lewis was in St John’s on Wednesday night. He told CBC News that he continues to see new faces in his travels across the country.
“Different issues arise where people gravitate towards those individuals who have the courage to talk about these issues,” he said, citing his opposition to vaccine warrants, among other things.
“These issues are important to the people and we are seeing that people from different parties dare the candidates who will discuss them.”
Patrick Brown brought his message to Montreal on Wednesday night at a dinner hosted by the Muslim community. It was just one of 20 member-selling events that Brown holds daily.
“So help me change the political debate in our country,” Brown told dozens of supporters gathered to hear him speak.
Jean Charest speaks to attendees during the launch of his Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign at Wildrose Brewery in Calgary, AB on March 10, 2022. (Oseremen Irete / CBC)
Jean Charest spent much of the week on social media and working on the phones in person.
“We’ve sold members at all of Canada’s attractions,” Charest campaign spokesman Lawrence Toth told CBC News in an email.
“Voting efficiency is key. We have focused on enrolling new and expired members in all constituencies, in all regions.
“We are very pleased with our sales, have re – hired and recruited thousands of new members and thousands who have not been involved since the Harper government years.
“In particular, we are excited to see the commitment of Quebec and Atlantic Canada.”
Scott Aitchison’s campaign manager Jamie Ellerton said his team has been working on phones and running digital operations for its final membership push.
Campaigns will try “psychology” – Paradise
Roman Baber has used social media almost daily to reach followers.
None of the campaigns would tell CBC News how many new followers have signed up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not looking over their shoulders.
“Teams are always inflating what they’ve sold to try to encourage each other,” Paradis said. “That’s just part of the psychology of this race … you want to motivate your volunteers to keep going and pushing towards … the last minute and demotivating the other team.”
The next phase of the race begins today. The six candidates and their teams are now going into persuasion mode, hoping to convince these hundreds of thousands of members to vote for them.
“Frankly, we haven’t really seen what’s going on because they’ve only focused on selling members on the ground to people,” Paradis said.
“It simply came to our notice then [of] what people would think of as a traditional campaign. “