Progressive Conservative Leadership Elections
The first Progressive Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was held in 1927, when the party was called the Conservative Party. Prior to then the party's leader was chosen by caucus.
There have been two permanent leaders since 1927 who were not chosen by a leadership convention. Arthur Meighen agreed to serve a second term as leader in 1941 on condition that he would not have to contest the position. The party agreed since the party was desperate for a leader of Meighen's stature. Jean Charest was one of only two Progressive Conservative Members of Parliament returned in the 1993 election and was appointed leader by the party's executive with the decision later being affirmed at a regular party convention two years later. The Conservative Party became the Progressive Conservative Party in 1942.
All leadership conventions were delegated conventions, except in 1998 when a one-member-one-vote (OMOV) process was used in which each riding was allocated 100 points which were distributed among candidates by proportional representation. For the 2003 leadership election, the party reverted to use of a delegated convention, obstensibly because of the cost of using an OMOV process though it has been argued that the party feared that use of OMOV would make an outside takeover of the party easier due to a decline in membership. In 2003, the party merged with the Canadian Alliance to form a new Conservative Party of Canada. This party adopted the OMOV process the Tories had used in 1998.
Read more about Progressive Conservative Leadership Elections: 1927 Conservative Leadership Convention, 1938 Conservative Leadership Convention, 1942 (Progressive) Conservative Leadership Convention, 1948 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1956 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1967 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1976 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1983 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1993 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1995 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention, 1998 Progressive Conservative Leadership Election, 2003 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention
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—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)