Latest news with #leadershipVote
CTV News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
B.C. Conservatives start voting on Rustad's leadership in marathon six-month process
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad holds a media availability following election results at the legislature in Victoria, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito VICTORIA — The Conservative Party of British Columbia has quietly begun voting on the leadership of John Rustad in a marathon process that could last about six months. Rustad says in-person voting has already taken place in at least two ridings and he expects the ballot to be completed in December, once members in all 93 B.C. ridings have taken part. The voting comes amid questions over Rustad's handling of a group of former Conservative MLAs who he recently accused of trying to blackmail their former colleagues in a bid to take over the party. The Opposition Leader says he's 'pretty optimistic' about the outcome of the vote, adding that he is not hearing a lot of negativity except from what he called a 'very small group of dissidents.' Rustad says he has 'to laugh' about names of alternative leaders that he says are being floated on social media. Conservative Gavin Dew says MLAs are confident in Rustad's leadership, but 'are also continuing to have important conversations' about how to strengthen and grow the party. Conservative MLAs are meanwhile scheduled to meet for their regular caucus meeting on Wednesday in Surrey. Rustad says he is not anticipating any 'significant issues' to emerge, but 'obviously there will be some questions.' The caucus of the governing NDP last week asked the RCMP to investigate Rustad's accusations of blackmail by former Conservatives and their staff, which he made in a leaked letter to the Opposition caucus. The three former Conservative MLAs, Dallas Brodie, Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy, have all denied the accusations. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2025. Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Poilievre to face leadership review in January
Conservative Party members will vote in January on whether Pierre Poilievre should remain as leader after his party failed to win April's election. The vote will take place in Calgary, the party's national council determined during a meeting Saturday, three sources told The Globe and Mail. Some within the Conservative Party were suggesting a March convention, but two of the sources told The Globe that Mr. Poilievre wanted to have the leadership vote sooner. No firm date for the vote has been established, but the party is targeting the last week in January for the event. Calgary was chosen because it could accommodate the event, the sources said. The Globe is not identifying the sources as they were not authorized to publicly discuss national council decisions. A spokesperson for the Conservative Party declined to comment. Robyn Urback: Mark Carney's early moves are making the Conservatives look like waterboys Throughout 2024, Mr. Poilievre's party seemed certain to win the election scheduled for October, 2025. Polls suggested they had a double-digit lead over the governing Liberals, numbers linked both to Mr. Poilievre's economic focus and widespread discontent with then-Liberal leader and prime minister Justin Trudeau. After the election of Donald Trump last November, the ground began to shift as the U.S. President imposed a range of tariffs on Canada and mused about the country becoming the 51st state. The dispute set off a surge of nationalist fervour, and support for the Liberals began to inch up as the question for Canadians became who was best to go up against Mr. Trump. Then, Mr. Trudeau resigned, and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney became prime minister, dissolved Parliament and called an election. He led the Liberals to a fourth-term victory, albeit another minority. Mr. Poilievre's party picked up more seats in the April 28 vote than they held in the last Parliament and increased their share of the popular vote. Lawrence Martin: Post-Mulroney, the Conservatives' brand is 'loser.' It's time for an overhaul The Conservative Party's constitution states that at the first national convention after an election the party doesn't win – if the leader hasn't resigned – 'the delegates will vote by secret ballot if they wish to engage the leadership selection process.' Mr. Poilievre also lost his seat in the April election. He is expected to run in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot. Mr. Carney has said he will call a by-election as soon as is feasible. Though the Conservatives have failed to win the past four elections, this will be the party's first leadership review since 2004, when then-leader Stephen Harper won handily. He went on to win government for the Conservatives in the 2006, 2008 and 2011 elections and then resigned after his defeat in 2015. Neither of his replacements – Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole – remained in their positions long enough after the 2019 and 2021 elections to face party membership. Some Tories say the collapse of the NDP vote is the reason they failed to defeat the Liberals this year. Others have said the campaign didn't adjust when it became clear the stakes were changing. 'We didn't pivot quickly enough,' Conservative MP Brad Vis told the podcast Bigger Than Me earlier this month. 'We were rightfully focused on cost-of-living issues, on changes that we need to see in the Criminal Code, but we didn't speak enough about the challenges that Donald Trump raised before and during the election in a quick enough manner that Canadians thought we were the best party to govern the country.'
News.com.au
12-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Punk rocker the frontrunner for Liberal leadership
Sussan Ley is cautiously confident she's on track to make history as the Liberal Party's first female leader, but the vote is tight and challenger Angus Taylor has significant support. The Liberal Party will vote on a new leader and deputy on Tuesday and choose who will take the fight to a triumphant Albanese Government that now boasts a stunning majority of 93 seats in the 150-seat parliament. Ms Ley, a grandmother who has previously boasted of 'a brief punk rock period' in the 1980s was born in England before migrating to Australia in 1973 as a young child. 'I had a brief punk period where I became one of Canberra's original punk rock people,'' she said. 'I remember one day I really excelled myself: no shoes, bright orange glasses that were tinted, spiky purple hair, a dog collar around my neck and a razor blade in one ear with a nose piercing that went to the razor blade, skinny black jodhpurs, petticoat top and black lipstick.' She is also a trained pilot. 'All through my childhood there was this ribbon of passion about flying and aeroplanes,'' she said. 'I used to read those 'dogfight' paperbacks for the flight scenes, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I could fly. I believed I could not learn because I was shortsighted. I met up with some RAAF pilots and discovered it only mattered if I wanted to join the air force.' Both candidates hit the phones on Monday as Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who won the seat of Goldstein from independent Zoe McKenzie briefly floated running for the leadership at breakfast before ruling it out before dinner. The bitter and bruising leadership battle has been marked by a string of extraordinary attacks on Mr Taylor led by outgoing Senator Hollie Hughes and an underground campaign of rumours and counterclaims involving Sussan Ley. One of the more 'bizarre' rumours – denied by Senator Hughes this week as having 'no truth whatsoever'- was that Ms Ley had offered her a job as her chief of staff if she won the leadership ballot. Ms Ley's supporters include the majority of moderate MPs and Mr Taylor's supporters are predominantly from the conservative side of the Liberal family. Liberal Senator drops a bomb on Angus Taylor Liberal Senator and political kamikaze operative Hollie Hughes dropped another bomb on Angus Taylor on Monday accusing him of plotting to replace Peter Dutton before the election. Just last week, Ms Hughes accused the shadow treasurer of having 'zero economic policy to sell' and expressed 'concerns about his capability' in a brutal public spray on ABC radio. But this time Mr Taylor is hitting back, with supporters slamming the latest salvo as 'out of control' and claiming she's 'lost the plot'. Senator Hughes popped into Sky News on Monday morning to suggest Mr Taylor was already plotting for the leadership before Mr Dutton and his party lost the last election. She cited the social media musings of former Queensland MP George Christensen, who has been tweeting up a storm suggesting all sorts of malfeasance. But that's enraged Mr Taylor's supporters who say it's total poppycock. 'She's out of control. Honestly. There was only one side undermining Dutton this campaign (and the entire term frankly) and I can tell you, it certainly wasn't us,' a Liberal source said. 'She's lost the plot.' An unrepentant Hollie Hughes told that she was 'literally just citing George's tweets.' In one of those tweets. Mr Christensen claims that one of those making calls on Mr Taylor's behalf was the spouse of a senior NSW Liberal MP. 'And one MP told her to grow some balls and tell your husband to call me himself,'' Senator Hughes recounted. But Mr Taylor denies anyone was calling around on his behalf. She also criticised Senator Jacinta Price for putting her name up for the deputy leadership. Senator Hughes said that Mr Taylor had insulted every Liberal MP and Senator by overlooking them for deputy and trying to get outside talent. 'To me, it feels like turning up to an RSL club in a membership form and then saying, by the way, I'm going to run for the board and I want to be president,' she said. Who's in and who's out With a number of Liberal seats on a knife edge the Liberal Party director Andrew Hirst has had to decide who can and can't vote in Tuesday's leadership showdown. He's confirmed Bradfield's Gisele Kapterian who appears to have won with 0.01 per cent of the vote has a golden ticket. But Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer who failed to unseat Monique Ryan in the Victorian seat of Kooyong does not. The list provides a few more clues – the Liberals are including the candidate for Longman in the voting class. There's then a group of three-cornered contest votes in Flinders, the seat of Zoe McKenzie, Monash, Grey and Fischer they are all voting. The Liberals will be left with 29 lower house seats and 25 senate seats, that's a total of 54 people voting for the leadership. That doesn't include Nationals MPs naturally and once they are included the Coalitions numbers in the House of Representatives have still undergone a brutal cull but are over 40. Embarrassing post haunts hopeful Lib leader As tensions heat up in the lead-up to the Liberal vote on Tuesday, Mr Taylor is getting rinsed on his social media accounts over an embarrassing social media fail from years back. It was way back in 2019 when the Liberal MP or a staffer operating his account was caught out on his official Facebook page. He was spotted replying to his own post, telling himself he was 'fantastic'. The Angus Taylor account then told the Angus Taylor post, 'well done Angus'. It's been used against him in parliament ever since, with Labor MPs routinely shouting 'well done Angus!' every time he gets to his feet. The post in question was spruiking an extra 1000 car spots at Campbelltown station, in the electorate next to the New South Wales seat of Hume. Just hours after the post, the same Facebook account replied to its own post, 'Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus'. The Facebook whoopsie made international news and was even reported by the BBC. The UK's former shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, also once tweeted his own name ('Ed Balls') instead of searching it, in an event that was so beloved it had its own commemorative day, known as Ed Balls Day. Another politician does an 'Angus Taylor' This year, independent MP Andrew Gee was accused of being caught doing an 'Angus Taylor' by replying to a Facebook post from his own account. He posted a statement on Facebook about the Nationals engaging in 'dirty tactics' on day one of the election, claiming they had called an elderly constituent and spread 'blatant lies about who I was going to preference in this election'. In a comment underneath the post, Gee then thanked himself for being a 'good guy'. 'Thank you Andrew Gee MP I am new to the area and have received texts from the Nationals and seen nasty ads in the paper from the Teal mob, it has helped me see who is the good guy,' the comment read. It was later deleted and comments on the post were restricted. A spokesperson for Mr Gee later blamed the failure on a 'new and inexperienced member of the campaign team who had access to the page'. Senator Jacinta Price will run for deputy Meanwhile, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced she will run for the deputy Liberal Party leadership and is backing Mr Taylor for the top job just days after joining the Liberal Party room. Hugely popular with the membership base and political donors, Senator Price has the right as a Country Liberal Party MP to choose which party room she sits in. Endorsing Mr Taylor's bid for the leadership, Senator Price confirmed on Sunday morning that she would run as his deputy. 'Today I announce my candidacy for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and my endorsement for Angus Taylor's candidacy for Leader,' Senator Price said. 'As I've said with respect to my decision to change party rooms, these are not matters which I take lightly and this decision today brings with it a great deal of responsibility which I fully accept. 'There is no question that returning to our roots as a party is critical right now. If we want to inspire and empower Australians across our country, we must return to these roots.' Senator Price said the party must stand for the 'forgotten people' and 'mainstream Australians'. 'I think of my grandparents who were by no means the elite, building their first home by hand with hessian bags and washing their clothes in the creek in Warners Bay, NSW,'' she said. 'But they saw a spark, a vision of a brighter future for generations to come.' But it's her decision to run for a leadership position before she's even sat in the party room that's raised eyebrows given the deputy has an important pastoral care role. 'She's perfectly entitled to put her hand up. The party room will decide that but people will have different ideas about that I think,'' Liberal Senator Dave Sharma said. Her big switch to the Liberal Party is being backed by former prime minister Tony Abbott and other conservatives. A vote on the Liberal leadership will take place in Canberra today.
