The third leadership race in the last five years for the federal Conservative party is in its final phase: voting. While the 600,000+ members of the Conservative party are starting to receive their ballots in the mail, members of other political parties as well as Canadians with no political affiliation are looking over the fence to see what is going on.

Many of our supporters, regardless of their political affiliation, requested an election guide for this leadership race, similar to the guides we produced for recent federal and provincial general elections, so that they can better understand where these candidates stand on key issues. Only those who are currently members of the Conservative party are able to participate in the leadership vote though.

As ARPA is non-partisan, we do not take a stance on who party members should vote for. This information is designed to help party members cast an informed ballot on several of the key social issues we address.

This leadership election uses a ranked ballot system. Party members can rank the candidates in order of their preference; if your top choice is eliminated from contention because he or she received the fewest number of votes, then your vote is transferred to your second choice. This process continues until a candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. While party members do not need to rank all five candidates (i.e. they can vote for just one or two if they like), the purpose of a ranked ballot is to ensure that a leader is chosen that is at least satisfactory to the majority of the voters.

We hope this election guide is helpful as you form an opinion of these candidates vying to become the leader of Canada’s Official Opposition and potentially the future Prime Minister of Canada.