The campaign for the leadership hinged on two main issues: Diefenbaker had engendered considerable loyalty amongst Conservatives during his time as leader because of his passionate speaking style, and his fierce commitment to Canada.

He had disclaimed any interest in running for the federal leadership having won a healthy mandate in the spring 1967 Nova Scotia election.

He finally bowed to pressure from Dalton Camp and other Ontario opponents of Diefenbaker, and joined the race.

Running as a "right-of-centre" candidate, his successful convention presence, and especially his very well received speech at the Tuesday night policy session, attracted many of the anti-Diefenbaker delegates, and made him "the man to beat".

He was the youngest serious contender, and was reported to have the behind-the-scenes support of the conservative Union Nationale party in Quebec.

His campaign was run by Lowell Murray, later to be an important figure in the next PC government under Joe Clark.

The Globe and Mail newspaper noted that, surrounded by chanting young supporters, the "arrival of Hees was like something from Hollywood".

Hees descended from one of two red London double-decker buses that he had hired to transport his campaign workers between his headquarters at the Royal York Hotel and the convention centre at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Hees's speech, delivered in carnival-barker style, at the Tuesday night policy session, however, was not well received by delegates, and his support began to drift off to other candidates.

John Diefenbaker, the 72-year-old party leader and former prime minister, kept the other candidates, the delegates, observers and pundits waiting for his decision on whether or not he would run to succeed himself until the very last minute.

Although he could not reasonably have expected to win, putting his name into the race allowed him one more opportunity to address the convention, and to appeal to the party to reject the ‘’Deux Nations’’ policy.

He used dozens of attractive young women in his demonstration at the convention (dubbed "blonde goddesses" by the Toronto Star).

He advocated a guaranteed annual income of $10,000 per adult as an alternative to the various social programs offered by different levels of government.

Starr proposed a “wage and price freeze” to fight inflation – a policy that ended up as the centrepiece of the 1974 PC campaign, and replacing personal income taxation by a “trading tax” on goods and services – a policy that was implemented by the PC government of Brian Mulroney in 1990.

During the campaign he suggested that Canada withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a comment that he later regretted and withdrew.

The 40-year-old was the operator of a Hertz car rental agency and British Petroleum gas station in Brockville, Ontario.

His speech at the convention also did not increase the party's respect for him: he spoke without a prepared text for only 12 of the 19 minutes allotted to him.

She gave a short speech setting out her ideas for PC party policy: When she was nominated at the convention, she had no seconder.

Some time passed before a female Hees supporter seconded Walker-Sawka's nomination in order to save her the embarrassment.

There was considerable pressure on Ontario premier John Robarts to join the race until he announced on September 5 that the province would be holding an election on October 17.

Among the many rumours circulating during the convention was one of a deal between Stanfield and Fulton that whichever candidate won fewer votes would withdraw and support the other.

Diefenbaker spoke to the convention as out-going leader, and only decided to make a speech as a candidate -- a few minutes before he scheduled to on stage -- at the urging of Erik Nielsen (Michael Starr’s campaign manager) and Joel Aldred.

He spoke for only 8 of the 19 minutes he was allocated because he said that he did not want to gain an unfair advantage over other candidates by speaking to the convention twice in two days.

What little support Diefenbaker still had collapsed on this ballot, with more than a third of his delegates deserting him, leaving it unlikely that he would even be able to act as kingmaker.

Fleming finished last and was eliminated, and Diefenbaker experienced another collapse in support that left him with less half the number of delegates he started out with; knowing that he would likely be the next to be eliminated, and wanting to leave the contest on his own terms, Diefenbaker withdrew, bringing an end to what would ultimately prove the longest tenure of any Progressive Conservative leader.

Though the fourth ballot still had Stanfield leading, Roblin was able to narrow the gap to the closest it had been percentage-wise throughout the contest.

Hamilton, having hovered around near the bottom of the vote for the duration of the contest, was finally eliminated on this round, and did not endorse any of the other candidates.

The election saw Fulton, Hamilton, and Starr all fail to be re-elected, while Roblin's attempt to move into federal politics also ended in failure.

Hamilton would later re-enter parliament at the 1972 election, while Roblin, after spending a decade focusing on his business interests, was appointed to the senate in 1978.