Erin O’Toole declared Conservative leader

O'Toole defeated Peter MacKay who was widely expected by the establishment media to win the competition.

In the first round of voting, no winner was declared. Derek Sloan finished in last place, thus removing him from the competition. MacKay won this round, however, he recived far below the 40 percent he was expecting with 33 percent.

In the second round of voting, O'Toole won with Lewis dropping out. O'Toole won the leadership in the third round.

The race was held between MPs Erin O'Toole and Derek Sloan, alongside Peter MacKay and Leslyn Lewis. Lewis has been widely credited for her performance in this contest; starting as an unknown candidate and finishing as the shining light of the competition. Lewis earlier told The Post Millennial that she would seek to become a Conservative MP.

Earlier in the campaign, Peter MacKay's candidacy was widely seen as a coronation. This, however, soon changed after his campaign was dogged by a series of errors.

Erin O'Toole, on the other hand, started as the underdog candidate, yet grew in popularity as the non-MacKay candidate. Premier Jason Kenney's endorsement also helped his campaign as the "true blue Conservative."

The Conservative leadership election announcement was delayed by nearly 6 hours. This was due to the fact that the envelopes were too small for the "envelope opener," and ended up cutting numerous ballots.

As a result of this delay, many newspapers published their Monday morning edition without mentioning the victor of the CPC race. Many Conservative activists expressed their disappointment in how the leadership election was run by party.

On top of this, there were rumours from certain officials within the O'Toole campaign that the MacKay campaign were "challenging virtually every single outstanding ballot, which is significantly adding to the delay."

This was later denied by the MacKay campaign who said "It isn't us. We are not protesting. We are waiting. Patiently. Too patiently."

This leadership election has been viewed as particularity important as Justin Trudeau's Liberals seem defeatable after a series of unnecessary scandals. Due to the prime minister's minority government, a general election may be called at any moment.