"WE SIGNED UP more new members than have ever been signed up in the history of Conservative Party leadership campaigns." So said Peter MacKay (pictured right), one of two front-runners to be the party's leader, in an email to supporters on May 17th. His main rival, Erin O'Toole (pictured left), declared that "our campaign set a record for most membership sales in party history!" The success in minting Conservatives is deceptive. Canada's main opposition party is in a funk (see chart on next page). It won 200,000 more votes than Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party in the parliamentary election last October. But Mr Trudeau won enough seats to remain prime minister at the head of a minority government. Andrew Scheer, the Conservatives' leader, is bowing out. The postal ballot to choose a successor is expected to produce a result by late August. (The party does not say how many members it has; 141,000 voted in the last leadership election.).
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