Conservative leaders are often judged on how they handle bread-and-butter issues. So we came up with a surefire way to test contenders for the party's top job in roughly 60 seconds.
We asked: Explain why you should be the next Tory leader — in the time it takes for your toast to pop up.
Their answers, as well as their choice of bread and condiments, reveal a lot:
The majority of candidates used the opportunity to burn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But Rick Peterson took our toast challenge to a whole other level, slicing in more puns than we thought was mathematically possible to butter up Tory supporters.
Andrew Saxton also did not hold back on the pun-front, promising, "Together, we will make sure that the Liberals are toast in 2019."
Deepak Obhrai selected white bread, and then made a brown joke. It's the yeast he could do, we suppose.
Erin O'Toole wrapped up his segment with a piece of warm multigrain toast and a winning slogan: "Fresh and wholesome, just like the Conservative Party of Canada."
Kellie Leitch — who jimmied her toast out with a knife — employed the soft sell, somehow plugging both her credentials ("Not too much butter for the doctor!") and her constituency ("I just need the honey from Beaton, Ont. in my riding and this would be complete") while buttering a slice of multigrain.
Michael Chong's parting words? "Mmm mmm." Can't get more effective than that.
Lisa Raitt chose multigrain, with a bit of jam on top.
Steven Blaney (who recorded his pitch before the deadline for new party memberships) also chose multigrain — and is really enthusiastic about Canadian butter.
Andrew Scheer was the only candidate to select TWO pieces of bread (white) for his toast segment.
Maxime Bernier was the only candidate to cut his toast in half.
Brad Trost was the only candidate who turned up the toaster setting.
Three Tory candidates (Chris Alexander, Kevin O'Leary, and Pierre Lemieux) were unable to participate in the toast series, which is crummy but what can you dough?
The Conservative leadership race's results will be announced on May 27.
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