party worker. Jack Horner, 48, had been a Member of Parliament from Alberta since 1958 and was a cattle rancher. He was considered to be a maverick and attracted votes from right-wing westerners. Horner was endorsed by former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Paul Hellyer, 52, was a popular, long-term Liberal cabinet minister from Toronto who had been defeated by Pierre Trudeau at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. After leaving the Liberal Party, Hellyer had attempted to establish a new party under his own leadership, the Action Canada movement. This was unsuccessful, and Hellyer joined the PC Party. Hellyer seriously damaged his bid for the PC leadership during his convention speech, when he criticized centrist Red Tories in the party for not being conservative enough. This alienated many party members who saw the irony in a former Liberal cabinet minister lecturing party members about being conservative. Flora MacDonald, 49, a popular PC Member of Parliament from Kingston, Ontario, was the first woman to make a serious run for the PC leadership. (Mary Walker-Sawka had won two votes at the 1967 leadership convention.) MacDonald encouraged women of all political stripes across Canada to support her campaign by contributing one dollar. She was believed to be the front-runner amongst the Red Tory candidates going into the convention. Based on the public statements of support that she had received from delegates, many believed that she had a realistic chance of becoming leader. She had been endorsed by New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield. Sinclair Stevens, 49, an Ontario businessperson and PC MP for York—Simcoe since 1972. Pat Nowlan, 44, the Member of Parliament for Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, had sat in parliament since 1965. Heward Grafftey, 47, was the MP for Brome—Missisquoi, Quebec. James McPhail Gillies, 51, was the MP for Don Valley in Toronto, Ontario. John Fraser, 44, was the MP for Vancouver South, British Columbia. Richard Quittenton, president of St. Clair College in Windsor, had also been a candidate but withdrew before the first ballot and endorsed Wagner. Results The first ballot was widely expected to be a close contest between Wagner and MacDonald, though it was thought unlikely that either of them would have a decisive lead. The result proved a shock to everyone at the convention, as while Wagner did about as well as had been expected, MacDonald did far worse than even the most pessimistic predictions had indicated, coming in