The voting process which has seen Yukoners cast their ballots for the new Conservative leader has left a foul taste in the mouth of one local party veteran.

While Conservatives gather in Toronto and locations across the country tomorrow, Yukoners had to have faxed their ballots off by Wednesday for their votes for leader to have counted.

Don Cox, the Yukon candidate of the now-defunct Progressive Conservative party in the 2000 election, believed the fax-in voting system kept local party members from voting.

'A lot of people didn't get a chance to vote,' Cox said in an interview today.

'Some people didn't have fax machines, for instance.'

Cox said another part of the problem was the 'convoluted and silly type of ballot' which called on people to fax copies of three types of identification along with their votes.

Some people didn't have three pieces of ID, he said. Another problem was the fact the ballots were mailed out late, he said.

He believes the problem started when the governing body of the Conservatives decided the Yukon was a remote riding, which he thought was preposterous. Cox said the Yukon is better-connected by technology to the rest of Canada than are some larger centres in the south.

In December, when the Progressive Conservatives voted on whether to merge with the Canadian Alliance to form this new party, a mini-convention was held in the Yukon, as well as in other cities across the country.

Cox said that kind of meeting worked and would've been better than the faxed in ballot.

The long-time businessman wonders if Conservative members in the Yukon may be paying for that merger meeting.

At that gathering, the Yukon was the only one of the 27 held across Canada where a majority of members voted against the merger. In the other meetings, the Tories voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining with the other entity.

'We may be being chastened a bit.'

Cox voted against the merger.

Although Darcy Tkachuk, another party supporter, voted for the merger, he would also have liked to see a different way for Yukoners to vote.

'I would've preferred to see a system that was better able to (meet) the needs,' Tkachuk said today.

But he also acknowledged organizers were working with a very short amount of time and had to deal with a lot of challenges.

There appears to be support for all three contenders for the leadership: former Alliance leader Stephen Harper; former Ontario Tory cabinet minister Tony Clement and wealthy industrialist Belinda Stronach.

Cox is throwing his support behind the newcomer, Stronach.

'The business of government is still business and who could do it better than someone from business?' Cox said.

He also does not want to see the other two win.

Cox is against Harper because his victory would then appear to be the complete takeover of the Conservatives by the Alliance.

As for Clement, Cox said he was co-chair of the United Alternative, which spawned the Alliance and was spurned by the Tories.

Despite being part of that, Cox said Clement 'masqueraded as one of us.' He wouldn't trust Clement to be leader.

'I think for the good of the country, we should have Belinda.'

Cox is joined in his support for Stronach by territorial Environment Minister Jim Kenyon.

Tkachuk is supporting Clement in the election.

'In my view, Mr. Clement ... demonstrated (the) strongest ability to deal with the issues facing Canadians,' Tkachuk said.

Tkachuk added Clement was the only one to acknowledge the North in his campaign materials.

The members were given a preferential ballot and asked to pick their first and second choices among the trio.

Tkachuk picked Stronach as his second choice.

Each riding is worth 100 votes, with each candidate receiving the number of votes which matches their percentage of the vote in that riding.

If there are fewer than 100 voters in the Yukon, this riding will still be worth the same as a southern riding which might have thousands of votes.

The candidates will address the convention this evening and votes will be counted tomorrow.