CPC LEADERSHIP RULES — Late Wednesday, the Conservative Party posted the rules for its most highly anticipated leadership race in almost two years. IAN BRODIE , the chair of the Leadership Election Organizing Committee, says the race's timelines will allow Tory MPs to return to the House of Commons in September with a new leader. — Candidate application deadline: April 19 — Entry fee: C$200,000 (plus a C$100,000 refundable deposit) — June 3: The deadline for leadership candidates to sign up new members — Ballots in the mail: Late July or early August — New leader elected: Sept. 10 — Declared candidates: So far, just PIERRE POILIEVRE JEAN CHAREST IS BACK — For at least the night. The former Tory cabinet minister and Progressive Conservative leader and Quebec premier and prospective candidate for the party's vacant leadership met a few dozen MPs at — where else? — the Chateau Laurier on Wednesday evening. — Will he run? He got the question during a scrum with reporters . "Run where?" he quipped. The serious answer: "That decision we will make when we know the rules." (We know what his bedtime reading was, then.) A key consideration for Charest: Does he have any reasonable chance at rallying enough support, and recruiting enough new party members, to compete with Poilievre? — Thesis statement: Charest hinted at a potential campaign theme. "One thing that I believe to be very important is to have a national Conservative party that is able to represent every part of Canada. That's really our responsibility." — Backlash: Charest is a hard no for Alberta MP SHANNON STUBBS, who posted a slick graphic that made the rounds and slapped Charest with the Liberal label. He was a provincial Liberal. The two parties aren't affiliated. But PIERRE POILIEVRE ally JENNI BYRNE doesn't see it that way: "A Liberal is a Liberal." Also a Grit-in-sheep's-clothing in the eyes of STEPHEN HARPER's former campaign manager? RICK ANDERSON, a former Reform Party campaign director. (No shame in his game: "Plead guilty to being a Liberal/Conservative/Reform switcher. Even elsewhere once in a while.") SPEAKING OF DIVIDES — A free vote on the Conservative benches always invites a healthy divide in the ranks. Make the vote about Quebec and the respectful spiciness climbs up the Scoville scale. Wednesday's vote on a Bloc Québécois motion had it all. The sovereigntists wanted to guarantee that Quebec would never lose a seat in the Commons when riding boundaries are redrawn every decade. That redistribution is happening now, and the proposal on the table has Quebec dropping a seat from 78 to 77. The Commons resoundingly approved the Bloc's protest: 262-66. — Wait, 66? That tally doesn't match the size of any one caucus, nor any tag-team combos. A scan of the vote reveals that Tories were split on the question, and not in straight-forward fashion. Fifty out of 119 were in favor. Almost every Alberta MP voted against the motion. But only almost: EARL DREESHEN voted for. Four of the 12 MPs from British Columbia voted yea: DAN ALBAS, MARC DALTON, FRANK CAPUTO and BOB ZIMMER. Saskatchewan caucus? Opposed. Manitobans and Ontarians? Split. Maritimers? Mostly in favor. Quebecers? All in. — Follow the leader: The last permanent party head, ERIN O'TOOLE, cast his remote vote in favor. So did interim leader CANDICE BERGEN. — The fallout: One Tory MP who voted nay wasn't cool with the Commons being able to fundamentally alter a constitutionally enshrined redistribution process with a single vote — especially when that process produces outcomes that favor one province over its faster-growing counterparts. — The outlier: A single Liberal, JOHN MCKAY , voted against the motion. Every Cabinet minister except the absent MÉLANIE JOLY sided with the Bloc. THE NEWEST SPECIAL COMMITTEE — The House voted late Wednesday on the structure of the parliamentary committee that'll put the government's invocation of the Emergencies Act under a very public microscope. — The numbers: Three Liberal MPs will sit on the committee. The Tories will get two, and the Bloc Québécois and New Democrats get one apiece. Four senators will also sit at the table. The Bloc and NDP, along with a senator, will all co-chair the group. A Liberal and Conservative will sit as vice-chairs. — Tories hate it: Deputy leader LUC BERTHOLD and House leader JOHN BRASSARD whipped up a blistering missive: "The Liberals and the NDP forced through an absurd proposal to strike a committee that neither respects the balance and the unique functions of both the House of Commons and the Senate, nor does their proposal respect the role of the Official Opposition in our democracy of holding the government to account." For the record, the Bloc also voted in favor. The motion passed 214-115.
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