2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election

[Njall]

Tomorrow is the deadline to pay the registration fee and the candidates on the ballot are Baber, Brown, Charest, Lewis, and Poillievre.

Is anyone else close to getting on the ballot?

If anyone else makes it, it's probably Aitchison. As of April 15, he was $100k from meeting the cut-off. This means he raised $200k in a month (he announced on March 16), so really if he's been able to keep up that pace of raising $50k/week, he should be able to make it. Although it could be the case that he raised big bucks early on from loyal supporters/locals/Northern Ontarians, but struggled to keep up beyond that. We'll find out tomorrow.

Other than Aitchison, my guess is no. Dalton is at least an MP but nobody knows who he is, Alleslev is more well-known but lost her seat, is a floor-crosser, and announced late. As for Grant Abraham, Joseph Bourgault, Joel Etienne and Bobby Singh...I mean, did anyone ever think they had a shot at raising $300k?

I recall seeing on Twitter yesterday that Aitchison's campaign was telling supporters that they were only $25,000 away from being able to pay the fee. On Tuesday, they were saying that they were $50,000 away, so it seems as though they were able to cut that in half over a 24-hour period. Based on that, I'd imagine that he'll narrowly make the cut.

[Njall]

I just saw on Twitter that Aitchison is verified now.

[Njall]

The first debate will be hosted by the Canada Strong and Free Network at their annual networking conference tonight at 5:30PM Eastern Time. It's not an official debate, but 5 of the 6 candidates (everyone but Brown) will be in attendance. Apparently it will be livestreamed on the Canada Strong and Free Network's Facebook page.

[Njall]

IDK about that. 2 of Brown's 4 caucus supporters switched to Poilievre this morning. https://twitter.com/DanMuysMP/status/1534188180215410692

According to this article in the Star, Poilievre's team sold about 1,800 and 1,600 memberships, respectively, in the ridings represented by these two MPs. In both cases, those figures are higher than the total amount of votes cast in the last leadership, so I can understand why they would feel pressure to switch. At the same time, it does make me question how Poilievre's campaign will end up performing relative to Brown/Charest's in more urban and/or non-naturally-CPC ridings, since he sold an average of around 1,000 memberships per riding in Ontario and has clearly far exceeded that average number in more rural and conservative seats, as expected.