Tonight, Conservatives will decide whether to keep Pierre Poilievre on as their leader.
The vote on his leadership, set to take place at the Conservative Party convention in Calgary, expected to start at 7:30pmMT. The result of the vote will be announced later in the night.
Poilievre needs to get 50% +1 to keep his leadership — but history has shown that Conservative leaders who fail to get a much clearer majority of support, around 80 per cent, tend to get the boot anyway.
Basically, he has to win — and he has to win by a very clear margin.
Here’s the thing, though: he’s almost definitely going to do that. Why? Because not all conservative party members get to vote on whether Poilievre stays.
Rather, it’s the delegates who will be casting the ballots. These are people elected by their fellow conservatives in their electoral district associations. They are, generally, very conservative conservatives.
So analysts and onlookers are widely expecting Poilievre to survive this particular test. Whether he survives the year as leader, though, that’s another question. Even if delegates vote to support him tonight, if his MPs keep crossing the floor to the Liberals…well…the knives might start sharpening.
As for the convention itself, it’s an interesting look at who is drawn to the party these days.
Not only has the Conservative Party prioritized so-called “content creators” over actual media, but there have also been far-right actors protesting outside. They want to see the party adopt the far-right, racist messaging of mass deportations: “remigration.”
It’s not good. Watch the full video for more.
