Ford win began with Clement voting system

 

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

Doug Ford can thank Tony Clement for his win.

In 1988 the co-chair of the Caroline Mulroney campaign chaired the rules committee that came up with the one vote per member ballot.

Saturday afternoon, hours before Ford won the PC Pary leadership, Clement was on air with the CBC saying how his days as an MPP had him heading up the group that opened the doors to party members across Ontario to take part in electing their leader.

He said in the past they missed out on all the fun and madness of Markham by not being at conventions as delegates.

They could still attend, but not participate in marathons that saw movements across the floor and similar excitement.

And many did, leading to much drama — but leading to more satisfying results.

But this was a ranked ballot — in which voters could stack the candidates top to bottom if they so chose; or just go with one or two or even three names.

Ford finally won the party’s marathon leadership late Saturday with 50.6 per cent of electoral votes.

Christine Elliott, the local choice in Parry Sound-Muskoka, finished a close second with 49.6 per cent of electoral votes.

Following the elimination of Tanya Granic Allen and Caroline Mulroney after the first and second rounds of the preferential ballot, Elliott had 32,202 votes to 30,041 votes for Ford, giving her an edge in the popular vote of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent for Ford.

Also on the first ballot, Tanya Granic Allen finished last with 15.3 per cent of points, with Mulroney at 17.2 per cent.

Ford came in at at 33.4 per cent and Elliott at 34.1 per cent.

* Figures from the CBC