Grant Abraham is one of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership hopefuls who, alongside the likes of Joseph Bourgault and Joel Etienne, were approved by the Party and as far as they are concerned met the signature and fundraising targets required by the April 29 deadline in order to appear on the ballot, but were then informed that they were deemed ineligible.

In the case of Mr. Abraham, he was originally told that while he had obtained all the required signatures, he had not met the fundraising goal. He objected, and had the documents to prove his case, and eventually, according to Abraham, the CPC acknowledged that they had misallocated the funds. Shortly thereafter, as Mr. Abraham proved with documents he shared with us, the Party stated that despite earlier confirmation he received in writing that he had met the signature requirement, he had not in fact cleared that hurdle for eligibility.

Whether this is a series of honest mistakes, institutional ineptitude, a lack of communication with the candidate or an overt effort to exclude certain voices from contention for the leadership of the Party, the repeated instances of dubious goings-on are causing many who were being drawn back to Canada’s largest “conservative” party because of rising political stars like Pierre Poilievre and seemingly principled voices like Dr. Leslyn Lewis to second guess their renewed hope in the Party.

We reached out to the CPC who replied stating that they would provide us with a release shortly, which we will be sure to share once they have done so. Leadership Election Organizing Committee executive director Wayne Benson also agreed to speak with me at Edmonton's leadership debate to address the matter.

Whether it be behind the scenes leadership wrangling or official Conservative Party of Canada debates, we are covering the race to see who will take on Justin Trudeau in the next federal election and asking the questions you want answers to like no one else can.

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