The race to succeed Stephen Harper this week saw Maxime Bernier settling a lawsuit, Steven Blaney trying to fundraise off drunk driving stats that have been falling for years, and Kevin O’Leary stating publicly that he would have voted for Trump.

Here’s our weekly wrap

We’ll begin on Sunday, with social-conservative candidate Pierre Lemieux’s pledge to ban sex-selective abortion. In a campaign video released Sunday, Lemieux said he wants Canadians to have a “respectful discussion” about instances of sex-selective abortion in Canada and says that, as prime minister, he would “take action” to end the practice.

Three Conservative leadership candidates launched defiant attacks on the Alberta NDP, carbon taxes and the media at a rally in Calgary on Sunday, but carefully refrained from encouraging or joining in with intermittent cries of “lock her up.”

Bernier attacked Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz Tuesday for championing the Liberals’ deficit spending.

“The Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, agrees that there is little more he can do to stimulate the economy and that we should use other means than monetary policy. He is right in saying this. However, he should have stopped there,” Bernier said at a press conference on Parliament Hill.

At the same press conference, Bernier delivered a not-so-subtle dig at his anglo rivals for the Conservative party leadership, looking ahead to the coming all-French debate in Quebec City and wondering aloud if “some candidates” will be able to keep up.

On Wednesday, Bernier settled a legal dispute with Chris Rougier over $25,000 for work Rougier claimed he completed for Bernier’s campaign.

And Conservative MP Dan Albas joined Bernier’s campaign Thursday. He will serve as his campaign co-chair for British Columbia.

Conservative MP Scott Reid is the latest Tory heavyweight to throw his support behind leadership candidate Andrew Scheer. Reid, who represents Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston and who played an important role in electing former prime minister Stephen Harper, announced his support for Scheer’s campaign Thursday morning.

Steven Blaney is fundraising off a claim that the number of drunk drivers is increasing — a claim that doesn’t agree with the statistics.

Borrowing from the old Canadian Alliance playbook, candidate Kellie Leitch’s latest policy proposal is a system of citizen-initiated referendums that would allow Canadians to regularly hold referendums to amend existing legislation and demand the introduction of new legislation.

Candidate Erin O’Toole is promising to “fight for our farm families” by defending supply management, funding agricultural research and increasing trade market access, his campaign said Thursday.

Businessman and potential Conservative leadership contender Kevin O’Leary abruptly deleted a video he posted on Twitter Monday morning — one in which he says he’s heading to “Capitol Hill” for a meeting with Conservative MPs. He later delivered a speech to invited MPs and senators — but has yet to announce his candidacy.

In an interview with Mark Sutcliffe on 1310 News Friday, meanwhile, the celebrity businessman said he would have voted for Donald Trump.

A family physician from Toronto penned an op-ed in Chatelaine this week where she explains why she will be joining the Conservative party to vote against Leitch.

Rick Peterson, a businessman from Vancouver, wants nine of his rivals — all sitting MPs — to pay taxpayers back for the Commons votes they missed while campaigning.

With the Conservative leadership lineup getting nearly as unwieldy as the Republican 2016 nomination field famously was, Tory strategists say we can expect the natural attrition Kevin O’Leary recently called the “culling of the herd” to kick in come January.

Official leadership candidates who have paid the first required $25,000 instalment are required to pay an additional $50,000 by December 31 — a ‘compliance’ deposit — and a final $25,000 on February 24.

There are fourteen official candidates right now: Tory MPs Bernier, Steven Blaney, Michael Chong, Leitch, Deepak Obhrai, Erin O’Toole, Lisa Raitt, Scheer and Brad Trost, former MPs Chris Alexander, Pierre Lemieux and Andrew Saxton, Peterson and physician Daniel Lindsay.