OTTAWA—The federal Conservative party is facing considerable pressure to postpone its planned leadership race as Canada and the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, one of the race’s two front runners, Durham MP Erin O’Toole, called on the party to delay the race until for the foreseeable future.

“We are in unprecedented times for our country,” O’Toole said in a video address.

“I’m asking the leadership committee of the Conservative Party of Canada to delay the leadership contest to ensure that all time and resources of our Conservative caucus and our grassroots members can be focused on helping our constituents and the needs of our communities in the fight against COVID-19.”

O’Toole’s request was a significant escalation in the pressure on party leadership to delay the race, with the cut-off to submit the required fees and signatures of support just days away.

Until Sunday, lesser-known candidates — Rick Peterson, Rudy Husny, Derek Sloan, and Leslyn Lewis — had expressed concerns about their ability to obtain the required signatures and fundraise the race’s $300,000 entrance fee during the pandemic. Peterson has dropped out, while other candidates have suspended in-person events.

The party’s leadership organizing committee, known as LEOC, made some concessions last week in creating an online portal for supporters to endorse candidates, provided resources for candidates to hold video town halls, and offered to connect candidates with the party’s membership to advertise those meetings.

That was last week. As the coronavirus crisis continues to spread, and more and more public events are being cancelled and there are serious concerns being raised about the party’s ability to hold a fair race.

But outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told The Canadian Press Sunday that altering the rules and timelines midrace also has consequences.

“As you can imagine in a leadership race, changing rules or deadlines or dates has the potential to have major ramifications,” Scheer said.

“And (the party is) very, very focused on making sure there is a level playing field for all candidates.”

Like all aspects of Canadian life, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted partisan politics. Even as the Liberals announce $82 billion in support for citizens and businesses — an amount of money that would normally have the opposition Conservatives’ blood boiling — there has been a noticeable absence of partisan jockeying.

Scheer said that in these unusual times, the opposition is not sticking to its usual tack.

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“It’s less of a debate of the ‘what’ and more accountability on the ‘how,’” Scheer told CP.

“We’re just trying to make sure we can communicate directly with the government when we do have concerns or when we think that there may be gaps, that we do it directly and through channels that are really aimed at getting results and not so much scoring political points.”

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