The Freedom Fighter's Conservative Leadership Race FAQ
Clarifying Why You Need a Membership ASAP: joinroman.ca/now
(June 9th Note: Some of this information may now be out of date. It is too late to buy a membership to become eligible to vote in the CPC leadership race. But we have until September to persuade people. Join us in the Roman Baber Fans Facebook group or visit his website to help.)
If you are Canadian, please go to www.joinroman.ca/now right now and sign up yourself—and anyone in your immediate family who’s 14 or older—for a Conservative Party of Canada membership, so you can be eligible to vote in its upcoming leadership race, which is a unique and urgent opportunity to help determine the next Prime Minister. Then join the Facebook group where we are campaigning to get every freedom activist in Canada to vote in the leadership race.
But if you are reading this post, you probably have a question you want answered before doing so, or need help explaining to someone else why they should do so… So let me help.
1. When is the deadline and who can register?
While voting doesn’t take place until August, the deadline to buy a membership and become eligible is this Friday, June 3rd, at 11:59 PM ET (8:59 PM PT).
People usually forget to do things they don’t do immediately, though, trust me, and some of the people reading this will be no exception. Don’t be one of them. Do it now if you haven’t.
And sign up your immediate family, too. It is legal to sign up your spouse and children if they consent. Anyone 14+ is eligible, too, so sign up those teenagers!
The reason you need to register three months before the vote is so that it is hard for people like us to “take over” the party by signing up just to vote in a leadership race… Let’s do it anyway.
Don’t wait. Do it now: www.joinroman.ca/now
2. Wait, it costs $15? Since when does it cost money to vote?!
This is not a normal, “official” government election (those you certainly don’t need to pay to participate in). Political parties are private organizations, and all require you to be a member to vote. Memberships cost money so that they can fundraise, and so not just anyone (for example people who are totally against them) votes in it.
This is a normal thing, and if it seems off to you, it is most likely because you haven’t participated in politics on the ground level like this before. It is good that you are doing so now, because your vote has about 100 times the weight here.
Part of why they do this is so long-term members are the ones voting, and people like us can’t “take over” the party… So don’t think of it as doing them a favour. Think of it as a small, strategic cost to get around them.
Please spend $15, less than a DoorDash or UberEats order, to help pro-freedom activists take over the Conservative Party of Canada and choose the Prime Minister!: www.joinroman.ca/now
3. I am having trouble signing up. What do I do?
A few people who had trouble soon realized it was because there was a space at the end of the email address field in the form, so check for that.
If that doesn’t work, try a different email or credit card. If that doesn’t work, you can contact info@joinroman.ca to ask for help, or call the Conservative Party of Canada to ask for help, or to do it over the phone, at 1-866-808-8407.
This, by the the way, is another reason not to wait until the last minute, so go buy one now if you haven’t: joinroman.ca/now
4. How does signing up work? How do I know I signed up?
Once you buy a membership, you will get an email confirmation of your $15 “donation” to the Conservative Party of Canada. If you received this, you are now a member, and will receive a ballot in the mail in late July or early August.
If you donated and didn’t receive that confirmation, it is probably just slow because of the surge before the deadline, but if you don’t receive it within say 12 hours (and have checked your spam folder etc.), you can call 1-866-808-8407 to confirm you’re on the rolls.
5. I thought the vote isn’t until September?
The vote isn’t until the late summer, but the deadline to become eligible for it is Friday so get your membership now: www.joinroman.ca/now
The ballot needs to reach the Conservative Party of Canada’s offices by September 10th in order to be counted, so be sure to send your ballot back (with Roman Baber ranked #1) by the end of August, but preferably even sooner than that.
6. What if I’m not fully sold on Roman Baber?
That’s fine. You will have three months to decide if and how to vote, but the deadline is days away, and it’s only $15, so sign up now: www.joinroman.ca/now
You should do this not only so I have more time to persuade you to vote for Baber, but so that the freedom movement can show it has clout in politics, and so we can make sure one of the more pro-freedom candidates defeats the candidates who are openly hostile to us: Charest and Brown.
7. I signed up through Poilievre or another candidate. Can I still vote for Baber?
Yes, for the same reason you can sign up through Baber without guaranteeing you’ll vote for him.
Candidates campaign to sell memberships because it helps them to have “their people” in the party, but all the memberships are the same. Where and how has no bearing on your vote.
(But when does matter, because you need to sign up this week in order to be eligible, so please do it now: www.joinroman.ca/now)
8. Wait, I’m kind of new to all this. What’s a leadership race? How is it different from a normal election?
A leadership race is like a “vote before the election” or a “semi-finals” before the next election, in which each party determines its candidate for Prime Minister.
Last year, Erin O’Toole was the Conservative Party of Canada’s candidate for Prime Minister because he won the 2020 leadership race, but he lost last year’s election, and in February the party’s MPs decided he should be replaced, triggering another leadership race.
Stephen Harper was able to become Prime Minister because he had won the 2004 leadership race. Justin Trudeau was able to become Prime Minister because he had won the 2013 Liberal Party leadership race.
9. What about the Ontario election? Is this the same as that?
No. Although my preferred candidate, Roman Baber, is most well-known as an Ontario MPP, he made the switch to federal politics in March and is running for leadership of the federal Conservative Party of Canada.
This is totally separate from Thursday’s Ontario election, although the deadline is a day after, which is understandably confusing some people who aren’t political experts.
10. Don’t we hate the PCs?
I very much dislike the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, at least as it exists now and has for the last several years under Doug Ford’s government.
The federal Conservative Party of Canada is a different party, and a different animal altogether. They haven’t been in power since 2015, and are in the middle of a leadership race, so this is an opportunity to re-shape one of the two major federal parties.
I would not recommend joining or voting for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and have been volunteering for my local New Blue Party of Ontario candidates.
11. What if I’m still not sold on the Conservative Party of Canada?
That’s fine. I’m not either.
Unless you are already a registered member of another federal party, you can become a member, and it imposes no obligation on you except throwing them $15.
If Baber doesn’t win (or even if he does) you will be free to vote PPC or not vote at all in the next federal election if you so choose, regardless of whether you buy a one-year membership today, and regardless of whether you voted in the leadership race.
I am not encouraging people to sign up for Conservative Party of Canada memberships because I endorse them. I don’t. I voted PPC last year. I am encouraging people to sign up so that we can install Roman Baber as Prime Minister or, failing that, prevent Charest or Brown from becoming Prime Minister.
Only two parties have ever determined the Prime Minister, and we aren’t fixing the Liberal Party any time soon, so please take this opportunity to re-shape one of them and put it in a better direction, even if you don’t love it.
12. Aren’t you worried about vote-splitting with Poilievre? We can’t let Charest win!
NO. Both as in “No, we can’t let him win” and “No, you shouldn’t be worried about that” because:
The Conservative leadership race uses Ranked Choice Voting, where the last-ranked candidate is eliminated in each round, after which their votes are transferred to their voters’ next-favourite candidate, and the process repeats until someone reaches 50%. This makes “vote-splitting” pretty much impossible, as anyone who puts Baber #1 is likely to put Poilievre and Lewis high on their list as well.
This is a drive to sign up new members, so it wouldn’t be splitting the vote anyway. “Splitting the vote” only happens when you are taking votes away from someone else.
And, given that some of the people reading this will likely put Poilievre or Lewis #1, and those that Baber #1 will still rank Poilievre or Lewis above Charest or Brown, we are making it much less likely Charest or Brown win.
I think Roman Baber is such an exceptionally good candidate that I would be willing to risk it, frankly. But even if you wouldn’t be, there is no risk of vote-splitting in this campaign!
13. We know you love Roman Baber (and won’t shut up about him…) but who do you recommend we put next?
It is important that we stop Jean Charest and Patrick Brown, who are openly hostile to freedom activists, from winning the leadership race. For that reason, I recommend placing Aitchison, Lewis, and Poilievre #2-4 in one order or another.
I haven’t decided which order I will put them in yet, but if you want to rank the candidates in the order they first started fighting vaccine mandates and how vocally, you would put Lewis #2, Poilievre #3, and Aitchison #4. There is no obligation to rank every candidate, but if you want to put someone #5, Brown is less bad than Charest.
14. The next federal election isn’t until 2025. We can’t wait that long!
There is nothing legally binding about the supply and confidence agreement between the NDP and the Liberal Party. It may be sooner than that. Before we try to make the next election arrive sooner, we need to put Roman Baber in position to be the winner.
Regardless of when the next federal election is, we will need someone like Roman to clean up Trudeau and Singh’s mess.
It is only $15 and you have three months to make a final decision. So please stop overthinking and take this opportunity before it is too late, everyone. Sign up already: www.joinroman.ca/now
Let me know if you have any questions that I should add. I will have another post soon on how you can help get the word out. Let’s do this! Before it’s too late.
And for now, you can join the campaign in our rapidly-growing Facebook group.
See you at tonight’s live stream.
Thank you for reading. Please stay updated on my writing, campaigning, and activism by subscribing to this Substack, following me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and joining the Freedom Convoy Toronto Facebook and Telegram groups.