Conservative leadership candidate Rick Peterson wants nine of his rivals — all sitting MPs — to pay taxpayers back for the Commons votes they missed while campaigning.

A statement on Peterson’s website is calling for nine candidates — MPs Kellie Leitch, Maxime Bernier, Steven Blaney, Lisa Raitt, Michael Chong, Brad Trost, Andrew Scheer, Deepak Obhrai and Erin O’Toole — to collectively reimburse taxpayers $216, 550 for missing votes in the House of Commons.

His website says the MPs have missed half of the 72 votes conducted in the House over the past six months, and two-thirds of the votes since October.

Peterson told the CBC’s Rosemary Barton Thursday night that, after the Moncton debate, a gentleman approached him and told him that nine of the MP candidates “aren’t showing up in the House.”

Peterson said he assumed the candidates were campaigning in their spare time.

“Our team did a little work and the numbers we saw were pretty outstanding. These MPs, who have a responsibility to their constituents and to Parliament have missed two-thirds to half the votes,” he told Barton.

“If I don’t show up, I don’t get paid.” Peterson said, adding that given the feedback from Conservatives across the country who want accountability from politicians, taking on the issue “is a no-brainer.”

Barton suggested it’s easier for Peterson to take this position because he’s not elected. “You have to lead by example,” he replied. “You have to walk the talk. If you’re getting paid $170,000 with benefits, you have to show up.”

Peterson also singled out Conservative leadership candidates Leitch and Bernier, who he said have raised “hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars without fulfilling their responsibility to their electors, their constituents.”

He says that if he wins the Conservative party leadership, it “will not be politics as usual. My MPs will show up and they will vote.”

He posted a breakdown on his website of how much he thinks each MP owes:

The MPs highlighted are: Deepak Obhrai (45% of votes missed/$38,036 owed); Kellie Leitch (44%/$37,529); Maxime Bernier (43%/$36,514); Lisa Raitt (30%/$25,357); Steven Blaney (26%/$21,807); Erin O’Toole (22%/$18,764), Michael Chong (18%/$15,721); Andrew Scheer (17%/$14,200) and Brad Trost (10%/$8,621).