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Poilievre’s team has reportedly sold nearly 312,000 CPC members, but its opponents are skeptical of the numbers.
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June 11, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 4 minutes reading • 398 comments Pierre Poilievre participates in the Conservative Party of Canada’s French-language leadership debate in Laval, Quebec. His team says it has sold 320,000 party members to become a leader in the CPC leadership race. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Ryan Remiorz Photo of Ryan Remiorz / The Canadian Press
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OTTAWA – Is Pierre Poilievre’s victory as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada inevitable? It looks like it could be more and more like this, even though opponents are questioning their membership numbers.
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Poilievre senior adviser Jenni Byrne raised her eyebrows when she revealed that the campaign had allegedly sold nearly 312,000 members on Poilievre’s website, a figure that, if accurate, would account for about half of “more than 600,000 “members sold by June 3. limit date.
“Well, we wanted to be honest about what member sales were. We’re very proud and happy with them. And so we thought, why not release the numbers and make a call for the other campaigns because they also publish the numbers? Byrne said in a recent interview with the National Post.
Marc-Andr é Leclerc, who was part of Andrew Scheer’s winning campaign in 2017, said he had never seen such a distant campaign to publicize the numbers in such detail, and that may be a good indication. that Poilievre’s team is feeling. quite sure of their numbers.
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He also thought it was an interesting strategy to challenge the party to make public the number of members sold through Poilievre’s website and to encourage all campaigns to follow suit. Party officials have confirmed they will not release the figures.
“Prove you’re ready to put your head on the block,” said Leclerc, who now works as a director of Maple Leaf Strategies in Ottawa and as a political commentator in Quebec.
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So far, Patrick Brown’s team has said it has sold more than 150,000 members and Jean Charest’s team, “tens of thousands,” though he has declined to give further details. The rest of the campaigns have so far refused to take stock of the shares sold.
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Doubts have been raised as to the veracity of the number of members sold, as the party already had less than 200,000 members before the race began.
Chris Rougier, Charest’s national campaign director, told the National Post that it is “mathematically impossible” to reach approximately 600,000 members by adding up the claims of all but pre-existing members and those the party sold through its website.
the hose numbers just can’t stand it
“These numbers just can’t stand it,” added Chisholm Pothier, Brown’s campaign communications director.
Rougier added that it is easy to inflate the numbers “because there is absolutely no way to verify it, and there is no way to confirm it” across the party. He also indirectly criticized Poilievre’s team, saying that “exaggerations in themselves are a political tactic,” even “a tactic of fear.”
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Steve Outhouse, campaign director for Leslyn Lewis, said Poilievre’s campaign sent a “very misleading” email the day before the membership cut with the title “Member State: Incomplete” which caused followers to buy a second subscription hours before the deadline.
“We were inundated, like totally flooded with calls, emails, messages from people who were panicking because they were getting that official note that said they couldn’t vote,” Outhouse said.
The email, which appeared in the National Post, indicated that it came from the Poilievre campaign and was signed by the “Verification of membership in Poilievre”.
The Conservative Party is now reviewing membership lists to make sure there are no mistakes or duplicates. Earlier this week, campaigns were told they were waiting for a preliminary list in early July, although “every effort is being made” to provide lists sooner, according to the party.
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Once the full membership lists are provided for each campaign, the race will officially enter the “persuasion” stage, which involves trying to influence members before the voting period.
All the teams from Charest, Brown and Lewis told the National Post that they believe they have a path to victory, even though Poilievre’s supposed numbers are well ahead of theirs.
The Charest team, for example, believes that this path to victory lies in a “points strategy.”
“We knew it was going to happen, that this was going to be a tight race and that it was going to be a struggle. , explained Rougier.
He has admitted that it is difficult to chart a “definitive strategy” as long as the team does not have the preliminary lists in hand. “Whether or not a ring road has 200 members or 5,000 members is a really important factor in making strategic decisions,” Rougier said.
Brown’s team said it will continue to target cultural communities that have felt alienated by the party in the past, while Lewis’s team still has strong support from social conservatives.
A source in the Poilievre campaign said they feel “very, very good about things”, but said the crucial step will be to get the votes out in late July and August in time for the September deadline.
“We don’t take anything for granted.”
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