Conservative leadership chair Ian Brodie said he believes the current leadership race will remain on schedule, despite concerns being raised about the wait times to certify memberships. .“I do not see a scenario in which the race could be delayed,” said Brodie in a Wednesday tweet. .“Candidates have signed up many, many new members and party staff are doing extraordinary work to produce a voters' list.”.Brodie said he expects the party to meet all of the deadlines set out in the leadership election rules. .Conservative executive director Wayne Benson said leadership candidates can expect more than 600,000 members to vote in the ongoing leadership election, a new record. .Former Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt said the party is six to eight weeks behind confirming memberships, and she wonders if it can send ballots out to voters on time. ."They can't process them, they can't send out ballots, they can't count ballots,” said Raitt. ."I am more worried about how this process is going to unroll than I am anything else.".The rules and procedures state the party must send voter lists to returning officers by July 8, but it does not have to provide the final list to candidates until July 29. .Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has signed up the most members out of all candidates at 311,958. .This number has broken the record for Conservative membership sales, eclipsing the total sold for the 2017 and 2020 leadership races. .Poilievre campaign co-chair and Conservative Senator Leo Housakos said he was "feeling incredibly proud of the Poilievre movement for this record-setting achievement.".Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown came in second place for membership sales at more than 150,000 people. Meanwhile, Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest said he sold tens of thousands of memberships. .Conservative leadership candidates Leslyn Lewis, Roman Baber, and Scott Aitchison have not revealed their membership sales. .The leadership election is set to take place on Sept. 10.
