British Columbia's Liberal party expects to sign up as many as 35,000 new members ahead of this month's leadership vote, and candidate Mike de Jong says more than a quarter of that number are backing him.
But the former cabinet minister, who was the first to publicly reveal how many new members he's signed up, isn't disclosing another important piece of information: where those new members live.
The deadline for candidates to sign up members for the Feb. 26 vote is Friday afternoon, and de Jong announced Thursday that he expects to have welcomed more than 10,000 new members by the time the signups close.
However, a new voting system that will effectively give more weight to members in rural ridings means the location of those new Liberals will be as important as how many of them there are.
De Jong acknowledged the new voting system will be a key factor in the outcome of the race, but he said he's not prepared to provide an urban-rural breakdown just yet.
"We have proceeded from Day 1 on the basis that the weighted voting system will be in place, and that's why I've been out and around the province to virtually every constituency," said de Jong, adding that he supports the weighted voting.
"I've given you the (total) number. You'll forgive me if I keep a little bit of the strategic information for the campaign just for now."
Party members will vote on whether to adopt the new system at a Feb. 12 convention.
Under the new system, votes would be weighted differently depending on which riding a member lives. The goal is to ensure rural ridings have the same influence as their more populated urban counterparts.
De Jong's competitors have not released their own membership figures, and each was still calling on supporters to sign up for memberships by the end of the day on Friday.
The party also hasn't said how many new members have actually signed up, but de Jong repeated the prevailing view from within the party that BC Liberal membership would likely double to about 70,000.
The changes to Liberal leadership rules also include preferential voting, in which members would rank the candidates rather than just picking one, and a telephone and Internet voting system.
The leadership race will replace outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell, who announced his resignation last November following more than a year of constant criticism over the harmonized sales tax.
The other candidates include former cabinet ministers George Abbott, Kevin Falcon, Moira Stilwell, cabinet-minister-turned-radio-host Christy Clark and former Parksville mayor Ed Mayne.
The New Democrats are also looking for a new leader. Carole James announced her resignation in December, about a month after Campbell, and the Opposition party will pick a new leader in April.
