Erin O'Toole wins Conservative leadership race on the third ballot

OTTAWA — Erin O’Toole has been elected leader of the Conservative Party, beating Peter MacKay on the third ballot by a margin of 57 per cent to 43 per cent.

Leslyn Lewis finished in third place, with Derek Sloan coming fourth.

The results had been expected mid-evening on Sunday, but were delayed by more than five hours after a defective machine ripped thousands of ballots that had to be double-checked before counting. The final result came out just after 1 a.m. on Monday morning.

“To the millions of Canadians who are still up: Good morning, I’m Erin O’Toole,” he said in his victory speech. “You’re going to be seeing me a lot.”

MacKay, who entered the race as the frontrunner, underperformed expectations on the first ballot, coming in just barely above O’Toole at 33.5 per cent to 31.6 per cent. MacKay’s campaign needed at least 40 per cent on the first ballot to have a path to victory, organizers said ahead of the results.

There were two keys to O’Toole’s victory: He defeated MacKay in Quebec on the first ballot, and picked up the majority of down-ballot support after Sloan and Lewis were eliminated.

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Although MacKay had strong numbers in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, O’Toole won in Alberta and was competitive in all of the other provinces. That was enough to put him over the top once Sloan and Lewis dropped off the ballot.

*First Ballot*

MacKay: 33.5% (11,328 points)
O’Toole: 31.6% (10,681 points)
Lewis: 20.5% (6,925 points)
Sloan: 14.4% (4,864 points)

*Second Ballot*

O’Toole: 35.2% (11,903 points)
MacKay: 34.8% (11,756 points)
Lewis: 30% (10,140 points)

*Third Ballot*

O’Toole: 57% (19,271 points)
MacKay: 43% (14,528 points)

More to come.