The federal Progressive Conservative party plans to unveil its new leader no later than Nov. 14, and perhaps three weeks earlier.
It will be the fourth in five years and 18th in the party’s 131-year history.
The party’s sole prairie MP says he will not be a candidate.
“I have ruled out running myself,” Brandon-Souris MP Rick Borotsik said April 30. “I am in the process of talking to prospective candidates and once I know who is running, I will be making a decision, making it public and actively working for them.”
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Former leader and prime minister Joe Clark has said he is considering an attempt at a political comeback. Several others have indicated an interest, but none are national political figures and none have formally entered the race.
The party holds 19 seats in the 301-seat Parliament, the rump of a caucus which five years ago held a majority government.
It is close to $10 million in debt and low in the polls.
Tory party officials said last week they expect the leadership race to attract members and to stir public interest.
The next leader of Parliament’s fifth place party will be chosen by a nation-wide vote of party members.
The first will be held Oct. 24, constituency by constituency. The constituency results will be transmitted to a central location in Ottawa that Saturday.
If no candidate wins a majority, a second vote will be held three weeks later.
Although there will be no traditional leadership convention, the party is planning an event in Ottawa that night to introduce the candidates and new leader if there is one, and to gain some media attention.
It will not be a one-member, one-vote system.
Each of the 301 constituencies will have 100 points toward a national total of 30,100.
Constituency points will be divided between candidates according to the proportion of votes they receive in each riding. For example, in a constituency in which 1,000 Tories voted in a 600-300-100 split, the favored candidate would be awarded 60 points, the second place finisher 30 points and the last place finisher 10.
A national total of 15,050 will be required for a first ballot victory.
Otherwise, a second day of voting will be held and voters will offer weighted choices which will produce a winner.
Candidates have until July 31 to file their papers.
They will be limited to campaign spending of $1.8 million for the first ballot and a second $500,000 if there is a second ballot.
The new Tory leader will face the formidable task of trying to rebuild a party displaced by Reform in the West during the past two elections, by the Liberals in Ontario and by the Bloc QuŽbecois in Quebec.
The current caucus is dominated by Atlantic Canadian MPs who ran on a platform of criticizing Liberal program cuts, even though the PC party ran nationally on a platform of even deeper cuts.
A leadership race is needed because former leader Jean Charest left to become leader of the Quebec Liberals to fight for federalism in the province.
He was proclaimed Liberal leader April 30.
Until a new leader is chosen, Saint John MP Elsie Wayne is interim leader.
Borotsik said he does not believe the next leader must be a westerner in order to win back the West.
Still, he said his favored candidate is Manitoba Tory premier Gary Filmon, but the Manitoba leader has insisted he will not be a leadership candidate.
Borotsik said he supports a Joe Clark candidacy, although he would not commit to supporting the former leader until he assesses who else is running.
