The Pollcast: Conservative leadership race begins to heat up

The CBCPollcast, hosted by CBC poll analyst ric Grenier, explores the world of electoralpolitics,political polls and the trends they reveal.

The list of contestants in the running for the Conservative Party leadership has ballooned to 12. One official debate has already been held and the contours of the race are starting to become clearer.

So who is standing out from the pack with six months to go before members make their choice?

• What MPs' endorsements say about the Tory leadership race
• Podcasts: Subscribe to the CBCPollcast

The dozen contestants include four MPs from Ontario (Michael Chong, Kellie Leitch, Erin O'Toole and Lisa Raitt), two from Quebec (Maxime Bernier and Steven Blaney), two from Saskatchewan (Andrew Scheer and Brad Trost) and one from Alberta (Deepak Obhrai), along with two former MPs (Chris Alexander and Andrew Saxton) and Manitoba physician Dan Lindsay.

It makes for a crowded field and a need for contestants to carve out a niche of their own. Leitch has pushed her screening of immigrants for "anti-Canadian values," while Bernierhas proposed a series of libertarian-style policies. Chong has put forward a carbon-pricing plan and Blaney has endorsed a ban on the niqab in the public service and attacked Bernier over his views on supply management. Scheer and O'Toole have each touted a long list of caucus endorsements, while Trost has claimed the socially conservative ground in the race.

Is any of this moving the needle among party members?

To break it down, Conservative insidersTim Powers of Summa Strategies and Chad Rogers of Crestview Strategy are back with host ric Grenier on this week's episode of the Pollcast.

Listen to the full discussion above or subscribe to the CBCPollcast and listen to past episodes.

Past episodes with Chad Rogers and Tim Powers on the Conservative leadership race:

• January: Your primer on the Conservative leadership race
• May:The state of the Conservative leadership race
• July:Tony Clement in, JasonKenney out
• September: The impact of MacKay's decision not to run

Follow ric Grenierand Tim Powerson Twitter.