Editing Preston Manning (section)

=== Leadership election ===
Exhausted by three years of constant campaigning to create the "united alternative", Manning and his supporters now prepared to engage in yet another campaign – for the leadership of the newly created Canadian Alliance. It was to be decided by a vote of the Alliance membership using a preferential ballot and to be completed by July 8, 2000. The slogan adopted by the Manning Team for this campaign was "PM4PM". Manning had resigned his position as Leader of the Opposition to combat the charge that it gave him an unfair advantage over other contestants for the Alliance leadership. Because it was important that the Alliance leadership be contested by prominent Progressive Conservatives, not just by Reformers, Manning welcomed the entry of Stockwell Day, the Alberta cabinet minister, into the contest. Because it was equally important that the leadership contest involve a prominent Progressive Conservative from Ontario, so that the Alliance did not appear to be totally western dominated, both Manning and Day also welcomed Tom Long's entry.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Waiting for the wave: the Reform Party and the conservative movement|author=Flanagan, Thomas|date=2009|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=9780773535466|location=Montréal|oclc=316666604}}</ref>

The [[Canadian Alliance leadership elections#2000 leadership election|Canadian Alliance leadership contest]] itself lasted 3 months in which the contenders crisscrossed the country numerous times and grew the membership of the Canadian Alliance to over 200,000 members, when the results of the first ballot were announced on June 24, 2000, [[Stockwell Day]] had received 44 percent of the vote (53,249 votes out of 120,557), with Manning receiving 36 percent and Long 18 percent. When the results of the second ballot were counted on July 8, 2000, the vote was 64 percent for Day and 36 percent for Manning. Stockwell Day became the leader of the Canadian Alliance and Leader of the Official Opposition in parliament. Manning's role as a political party and opposition leader was over. As he ruefully remarked, "The operation was a success but the doctor died."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cpac.ca/en/a-house-divided/|title=Pillars of Democracy: A House Divided|date=October 12, 2017|work=CPAC|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>