Conservative leadership campaigns in ‘white-knuckle’ mode as they await membership list, shift gears to direct voter contact and persuasion, by Campbellian_ cdnpoli (unlocked)
The campaigns of Conservative leadership candidates Pierre Poilievre, clockwise from top left, Leslyn Lewis, Jean Charest, Scott Aitchison, Patrick Brown, and Roman Baber are entering a new phase focused on persuasion and direct voter contact, following the June 3 cut-off for membership sales.The story link will be added automatically.
“The first half of the campaign, the ground-game organization and the membership sales team has the priority, but now it shifts entirely over to the communications and direct voter contact side,” said Robertson, who also noted that media relations would be important to reach a potential membership of over 600,000—a number that would represent the largest membership for a political party in Canadian history, if the figures being claimed by candidates are verified.
“I remember back in 2020, the cut off for selling memberships came and went, and then there was sort of a dark period that lasted about 10 days in which the membership sales had been cut off, but we didn’t yet have the complete list,” he said. “The campaigns actually spend a lot of time trying to try to make sure all the people they submitted actually appear on the list,” said Burnett, adding this is more important for campaigns that sold the most, while challenging membership sales is a focus for other camps. “That’s the first thing.”