A bag of pins stating "End Supply Management" sits outside the Conservative national convention in Halifax on Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

HALIFAX – Some Conservative Party members are accusing party leadership of bending to pressure from Canada’s dairy lobby after images from a Dairy Farmers of Canada internal briefing binder were shared online, less than a day after a resolution calling for the end of supply management failed to be debated at the Tories’ policy convention.

Matthew Bexte, a delegate from Vulcan, Alta., took to Twitter Saturday evening to share photos of pages from the briefing binder about the a resolution calling for the phase-out of Canada’s supply management system. The binder outlined various scenarios and possible outcomes, depending on whether the resolution passed or not.

It also stated that Dairy Farmers of Canada had been assured by current Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s staff the phase-out of supply management would not be included in the party’s election platform.

I spent thousands of dollars to get to #cpc18, and it turns out that there was a coordinated effort between Big Dairy and @AndrewScheer to betray members and our right to be heard. The outcome was predetermined, our voices don’t matter. #cdnpoli #abpoli pic.twitter.com/zRAXPtFabD — Matthew Bexte (@3conomic) August 26, 2018

Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who was kicked out of the Alberta United Conservative Party earlier this year, has also shared the photos.

“Leaked document from the Supply Management Lobby at the federal Tory convention. Clearly outlines no matter what the grassroots conservatives voted for, their votes don’t matter,” he wrote on Twitter.

Dairy Farmers of Canada said Sunday they had not been told about the party’s platform plans. In an email sent to Scheer’s Chief of Staff Marc-Andre Leclerc and shared on Twitter by Scheer’s Director of Communication Brock Harrison, Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Chief Executive Officer Jacques Lefebvre said the briefing document contained “erroneous information,” for which he apologized.

“This information suggested that, following a communication with the OLO (Official Leader of the Opposition) and regardless of the vote, a draft policy on supply management would not make it to the party’s platform,” the email reads. “I have spoken with our staff, and this information is inaccurate.”

iPolitics has confirmed the pages photographed and shared online are authentic.

“The briefing book was stolen from a delegate at the convention,” Lefebvre said in statement.

The book had been under the delegate’s chair.

Three thousand Conservative party members from across Canada were in Halifax this week for the party’s three-day policy convention to debate a range of policy issues, including immigration, carbon tax, abortion and supply management. It wrapped up Saturday afternoon.

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Supply management emerged as a wedge-issue during the party’s 2017 leadership race after Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, a long time critic of the quota-based system, promised to dismantle it if elected leader.

He finished second to Scheer, who publicly endorsed the system. Defending supply management is the party’s current position on the file.

Bernier quit the party on Thursday in an explosive exit after he attacked it for being too afraid to tackle sacred cows, including supply management. His riding of Beauce is home to one of the highest concentration of dairy farmers in the country.

In a tweet Friday evening, Bernier waded into the debate and urged Conservatives who were unhappy — with this position and others — to join him as he starts a new party.

“To all those who feel let down by this party, I say: You will be let down again and again. Don’t waste your time. It’s time for a REAL conservative party defending REAL conservative values. The sooner this gets settled, the more chances we will have to defeat Justin Trudeau,” he tweeted.

“Conservatives are supposed to stand for free markets, not government supported cartels that put politicians in their pockets. We must offer Canadians a real conservative option,” he said in a separate tweet.

Bernier sent out more tweets on Sunday, including one that listed the names and phone numbers of the dairy, egg and poultry lobbyists who attended the convention. Another promoted the supply management-focused chapter of his yet to be published autobiography.

I know for a fact that many of my former caucus colleagues are privately opposed to supply management and are good people who genuinely want to fight for conservative values. How do they feel about being blatantly manipulated like this? — Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) August 26, 2018

Bernier did not attend the party’s convention in Halifax.

Opponents of supply management argue the system makes dairy, poultry and egg products more expensive for consumers. Industry disputes that claim as the system only dictates the price paid to the farmer. Prices set at the grocery store are not set by provincial milk, egg and poultry boards.

Officials have insisted the party remains united despite Bernier’s exit. That united front frayed somewhat in Halifax with Bernier supporters visibly frustrated about how the policy debate was handled.

“It’s just so extremely frustrating because this party – and the leadership – it’s displaying incompetence or outright arrogance or a combination of both,” Bexte said in an interview Sunday. “It’s just a dangerous attitude to be displaying to your membership when we’re going into an election next year.”

Bexte, who initially supported Tony Clement as leader before endorsing Scheer, told iPolitics Sunday a number of delegates from Alberta came to the convention solely to debate the “most important issue” – supply management.

“We spent thousands of dollars, in some cases, to get here and the party just said it’s more important to have a fireside chat with Andrew Scheer than it is to debate policy.”

Frustrations about how policy debate was being handled first emerged Friday afternoon at the economic development and trade breakout session. There were 26 resolutions to debate and vote on over the course of three hours.

The supply management resolution was the last resolution on the list.

The session started half an hour late after a last minute room change that saw it moved to a temporary, curtained off room in the basement of the convention hall. It was standing room only. The session chair had to ask for more chairs to be brought in twice.

Several delegates complained about being unable to hear the debate and the rulings of the chair because of outside conversations. Others repeatedly asked the chair to speed up the process.

Requests to bump the supply management resolution up the list and extend the session to make up for its late start were rejected.

The chair repeatedly had to ask delegates wearing white and yellow lanyards, instead of the blue lanyards of voting members, to exit the voting area and reposition themselves on the room’s periphery. He said the reason the session could not be extended was because caucus members had a meeting to attend before Scheer took the stage for his key note speech that night.

That decision infuriated some delegates in the room.

“We want to stay in this party,” Peter McCaffery, a delegate from Calgary shouted. “This is about more than one person.”

Another delegate was spotted throwing his Conservative Party of Canada hat on the ground and stomping on it in frustration. Several others shouted “shame!” and “vote! vote! vote!”

Party rules stipulate policies must be debated at a break out session. The most popular policies are then sent to the national plenary to be debated and voted on by party members. In order for a resolution to be added to the party’s policy document it must earn double majority support amongst members and regions.

However, policy added to the party’s policy documents are not automatically included in a party’s platform. Its contents are at the discretion of the platform committee and the party leader.

On Friday, only 20 of the resolutions up for debate at the economic development and trade session were discussed. The remaining five resolutions, including the one on supply management, did not make the debate floor.

However, Bexte told iPolitics the two other breakout sessions scheduled at the same time got through all 25 resolutions. One session was on immigration, defence and democratic reform. The other addressed health, social issues and justice.

“There was huge support across Alberta,” the Alberta delegate said. “This (supply management) was the most important resolution of the weekend to many Alberta boards.”

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The order of resolutions had been pre-determined ahead of Convention by the party’s policy committee, based on votes submitted by the provincial delegations collected via the party’s online policy hub called Ideaslab.

Several delegates with access to IdeasLab told iPolitics there had been three competing supply management resolutions up for consideration.

In a tweet Sunday, MP Karen Vecchio said less than 10 per cent of the 338 ridings supported the resolution.

My riding was one of the ridings that supported this motion. It ranked last on the potential policies put forward. The higher the number of EDAs who supported the motion, the higher it ranked on the list. Out of 338 ridings, less than 10% supported. — Karen Vecchio (@karen_vecchio) August 26, 2018

Delegates opposed to supply management have accused party officials of engaging in delay tactics after multiple requests to bump the resolution up the list and extend the break out session to account for its late start were denied.

In an interview with iPolitics Friday, McCaffery said he had spotted party staff members, who he said wore white lanyards rather than the blue lanyards of delegates, engaging in delay tacts and instructing people to intervene in the earlier debates.

Bexte saw the same thing.

“There were people with white lanyards, who were told multiple times to leave, staff members going in, talking to party interns, whispering in their ear and then the party intern would miraculously be up at the microphones at the next policy asking a silly question to delay things,” he said. “There’s a pattern of the party manipulating its membership to come to a predetermined outcome.”

Both Bexte and McCaffery have said they are considering leaving the party because of what happened.

Despite the controversy, Scheer’s director of communications insisted the party remains united. He said in a text message it’s not uncommon for resolutions to not be debated.

“Every single Conservative convention ends with resolutions that don’t get debated and people being disappointed about it,” Harrison said. “We didn’t get through our constitutional resolutions earlier in the day – it’s very common,” he said, noting party rules state between 20-25 resolutions will be debated at convention.

“The ranking process was entirely transparent and grassroots and the rankings reflect that.”

Despite Bernier’s departure Conservative officials, including Scheer, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other MPs, have publicly insisted the party remains united. Scheer told reporters Thursday he did not expect a single MP to quit the party to join Bernier. He said Bernier had “made a choice,” opting to help the Liberals win the next election instead.