Ontario PCs are trying to stop me: Ford
Contender slams ‘insiders and elites’ in party
Doug Ford tossed another grenade at the Ontario Conservative establishment Friday, accusing the party of deliberately trying to thwart his leadership bid by restricting candidates’ ability to sign up new members.
Rules for the suddenly called leadership race say that new membership applications will be accepted only up to Feb. 16, though voting doesn’t start until March 2.
Ford said that policy was intended to undermine him, arguing that he has the strongest core support and greatest ability to attract new blood into the Conservatives.
“They’re doing this on purpose to hinder me, because out of all the candidates they know I can sign up more people,” he said in an interview with the National Post. “This is about … the insiders and the elites trying to figure out how they’re going to stop Doug Ford. The common people want me in there.”
Ford called into question other aspects of the rules, too, saying the plan to hold the election via electronic balloting has the potential to make individual voters’ choices visible to party officials, and is open to hacking.
“When someone votes, someone out there is going to be able to see who is voting for who, right? It’s inevitable,” said Ford. “It’s everybody’s God- given right in a democratic society to make sure their vote is going to be confidential. It’s not going to be confidential.”
Meanwhile, he vowed to abide by another rule — that candidates follow policy resolutions passed by party rank- and- file — yet said he wanted to change one of the Conservatives’ most contentious platform planks, support for a carbon tax.
Ford, a former Toronto may oral candidate and brother of late mayor Rob Ford, said his campaign team was up until 1 a.m. Friday poring over the rules.
But the lawyer who oversaw development of the policies suggested he has nothing to worry about, rejecting especially any suggestion that the time limit on new memberships was related to Ford’s candidacy.
The party wanted to leave applications open as long as possible, but still allow time to ensure membership requests are valid, and to inform new members how they can vote, said Hartley Lefton, chair of the party’s rules committee.
“We need to put a pin in memberships at some point, and that’s the date that was chosen, well before any candidate announced,” he said. “It would be tremendously unfair to sign up a member, to take their $ 10 and not have the time to actually give them an opportunity to vote.”
As for the electronic balloting, it will be a secure, confidential and efficient use of Conservative resources that provides “unprecedented access to voters,” said Lefton.
Ford also questioned a rule that suggests leadership contenders be “approved by the Provincial Nominations Committee as a candidate” in the June 7 election. Like some others, he interpreted that to mean the leadership contenders had to be nominated as candidates in specific ridings.
Ford called that “ridiculous” and said it could particularly hurt rival Christine Elliott, who has been out of politics for two years.
But Lefton said the requirement is only t hat leadership candidates go through the same vetting process as any other candidate for the party. They don’t have to actually be nominated as an MPP candidate before the leadership vote, he said.
In November, f ormer leader Patrick Brown released the “People’s Guarantee” party platform, which includes a commitment to adopt the federal tax on carbon emissions, and use the revenue to fund income tax cuts and other promises.
The leadership rules require that contenders follow the policy resolutions adopted by party members. Ford said he would do that, but also said he opposed the environmental levy.
“I’m going to make sure we get rid of that carbon tax,” he vowed Friday. “It’s just a bad tax.”
Lefton stressed that the rules require leadership candidates to support the resolutions passed at party conventions as the “foundation” of Conservative policy.
The People’s Guarantee document, however, was drafted and released by Brown’s office, and would not appear to be specifically covered by that rule.