Editing Primary election (section)

===Party leaders===
Canadian political parties also organize their own elections of [[party leader]]s. Not only will the party leader run for a seat in their own chosen [[Electoral district (Canada)|riding]], they will also become [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] (in a federal election) or [[Premier (Canada)|Premier]] (in a province or territory) should their party secure the confidence of parliament (usually by winning the most seats). Thus, a leadership election is also considered to be one for the party's de facto candidate for Prime Minister or Premier. If the party does not secure the confidence of parliament, but wins the next most amount of seats, the party leader will become Leader of the [[Official Opposition (Canada)|Official Opposition]]; if the party comes third or lower but maintains [[official party status]], the leader will still be recognized as the leader of their party, and will be responsible for co-ordinating the activities and affairs of their party's [[Caucus#In Commonwealth nations|caucus]] in the legislature.

In the past, Canadian political parties chose party leaders through an American-style delegated [[leadership convention]]. Local riding associations would choose delegates, usually in a manner similar to how they would choose a candidate for election. These delegates typically said explicitly which leadership candidate they would support. Those delegates, as well as other delegates (''e.g.'' sitting party [[Member of parliament#Canada|members of Parliament or the legislature]], or delegates from party-affiliated organizations such as [[Labor unions#Canada|labor unions]] in the case of the [[New Democratic Party (Canada)|New Democratic Party]]), would then vote, again using the exhaustive ballot method, until a leader was chosen. Some provincial political parties retain the delegated convention format.

Lately, Canada's major political parties have moved towards [[Direct election|direct elections]] for federal leadership. A leadership convention is still scheduled, but all party members have a chance to vote for the new leader. Typically, members may vote either in person at the convention, online, or through a [[Postal voting|mail-in ballot]].

[[Instant-runoff voting|Instant-runoff]] is used in whole or in part to elect the leaders of the three largest federal [[political parties in Canada]]: the [[Liberal Party of Canada]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/party-news/liberals-vote-overwhelmingly-in-favour-of-one-member-one-vote-2/ |title=Liberals vote overwhelmingly in favour of one-member, one-vote |publisher=Liberal.ca |date=2 May 2009 |access-date=17 April 2011 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504140309/https://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/party-news/liberals-vote-overwhelmingly-in-favour-of-one-member-one-vote-2/ |archive-date=4 May 2011 }}</ref> the [[Conservative Party of Canada]], and the [[New Democratic Party]], albeit the New Democratic Party uses a mixture of IRV and [[exhaustive voting]], allowing each member to choose one format or the other for their vote (as was used in their [[2017 New Democratic Party leadership election|2017]] leadership election). In 2013, members of the Liberal Party of Canada elected [[Justin Trudeau]] as party leader through IRV in a national leadership election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.macleans.ca/2013/04/05/the-liberal-leadership-vote-who-what-where-when-how-could-it-go-wrong/|title=What Comes Next in the Liberal Vote |publisher=Maclean's |date=5 April 2013 |access-date=17 April 2013}}</ref> The Conservative Party used IRV (where each of the party's 338 riding associations are [[Weighted voting|weighted equally]], regardless of how many members voted in each riding) to elect [[Erin O'Toole]] as party leader in [[2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election|2020]], [[Andrew Scheer]] in [[2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election|2017]], and [[Stephen Harper]] in [[2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election|2004]].