Andrew Scheer, a longtime Saskatchewan MP and former Speaker of the House of Commons, has been narrowly elected the new leader of the federal Conservative party.
The nail-biting process of winnowing the field went down to the final 13th ballot before Scheer, 38, was declared the winner with 51 per cent of the available points, edging out longtime front-runner Maxime Bernier.
Bernier had led throughout the previous 12 ballots.
Candidates were scored not by votes, but by points: every riding in the country was allocated 100 points, and each candidate received a number of points depending on their share of votes in that riding.