{"id":78338,"date":"2017-05-27T21:59:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T21:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/conservatives-gather-to-see-new-leader-crowned-tonight.html"},"modified":"2017-05-27T21:59:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T21:59:48","slug":"conservatives-gather-to-see-new-leader-crowned-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/conservatives-gather-to-see-new-leader-crowned-tonight.html","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives gather to see new leader crowned tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Conservatives crown a new leader tonight to take the party into the next electoral battle against Justin Trudeau&#8217;s Liberals in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Staggered ballot-by-ballot results will be announced at the Toronto Congress Centre, site of the\u00a0party&#8217;s leadership convention, after a short tribute to outgoing interim leader Rona Ambrose at 5 p.m. ET. CBCNews.ca is carrying the results live.<\/p>\n<p>About 132,000 party members mailed in ballots, and thousands more voted in person onsite or at a few polling stations located across the country.<\/p>\n<p>There were 16 candidates in the race, but three dropped out, including television reality show celebrity Kevin O&#8217;Leary, whose name was left on the ballot due to a late withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4134627.1495915889!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/conservative-composite.jpg\" alt=\"conservative composite\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">The federal Conservative leadership convention got underway in Toronto on Friday and will culminate with the results of the race to replace Stephen Harper later Saturday. (Chris Wattie\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>The remaining 13 candidates delivered final speeches Friday night, laying out their vision for the party and the country.<\/p>\n<p>Many of them urged unity after a long and at times rancorous\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Candidates in the race until the end are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chris Alexander<\/li>\n<li>Maxime Bernier\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Steven Blaney<\/li>\n<li>Michael Chong<\/li>\n<li>Kellie Leitch<\/li>\n<li>\u200bPierre Lemieux<\/li>\n<li>Deepak\u00a0Obhrai<\/li>\n<li>\u200bErin O&#8217;Toole<\/li>\n<li>Rick Peterson<\/li>\n<li>Lisa Raitt<\/li>\n<li>Andrew Saxton<\/li>\n<li>Andrew Scheer<\/li>\n<li>Brad Trost<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Saturday&#8217;s program included a\u00a0farewell tribute to Ambrose, who served as interim leader after Stephen Harper stepped down following the last election.<\/p>\n<p>Michelle Warkentin and Mike Vecchio, both\u00a0spouses of MPs, also praised her partner, J.P. Veitch, for his support during the last\u00a0569 days, calling him one of the party&#8217;s &#8220;unsung heroes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vecchio joked that Veitch may have had a better attendance record in the House of Commons than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and they presented him with a cardboard cut-out, a reference to the much-mocked cut-outs of Trudeau that were installed in Canadian embassies abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Veitch\u00a0called it an &#8220;honour and an amazing privilege&#8221; to have been by Ambrose&#8217;s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t wait for our next chapter,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\"><strong class=\"spaced\">CBC News special: Conservative leadership convention LIVE<\/strong>0:00<\/p><\/p>\n<p>Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/conservative-leadership-race-winner-1.4134575?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservatives crown a new leader tonight to take the party into the next electoral battle against Justin Trudeau&#8217;s Liberals in 2019. Staggered ballot-by-ballot results will be announced at the Toronto Congress Centre, site of the\u00a0party&#8217;s leadership convention, after a short tribute to outgoing interim leader Rona Ambrose at 5 p.m. ET. CBCNews.ca is carrying the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-78338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}