Patrick Brown mayor of Brampton

Patrick Brown staged a remarkable political comeback on Monday, taking the mayor’s office in Brampton in a close contest with the city’s incumbent mayor.

Brown, 40, was forced to resign as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party on the cusp of a provincial election earlier this year amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Brown denied the allegations — describing his downfall as a “political assassination” — and moved to reinsert himself into politics by running as the chair of Peel Region. But when Premier Doug Ford (the man who succeeded Brown as Tory leader) changed the regional board chairs to appointed positions, Brown — once again ejected suddenly from a political race — chose to run in Brampton.

Brown succeeded in turning the local mayoral race into a tight contest between himself and incumbent mayor Linda Jeffrey.

Brown, who’s spent his career representing regions in and around Barrie, Ont., at the federal, provincial and municipal level, recently moved to Brampton with his wife Genevieve.

In his victory speech, he thanked his wife and said, “As you know we got married recently and when we got engaged in March we said we would have a fall wedding.” But he added that they never expected that their honeymoon would be spent door knocking in a mayoral election.

For the future he said, “What I heard was that Brampton wants to welcome investment. Brampton wants to be open for business.”

Brown said the era of high taxes was “gone” and he was committed to getting a “fair deal” for Brampton in health care, transit and education.

“We are not second-class citizens in Brampton,” he said. “We are not going to stand for it anymore.”

Jeffrey accused Brown of parachuting into the Brampton election to rehabilitate his own image.

“While I welcome Mr. Brown’s entry into the race, I would like to bring the attention of Brampton voters that the ink barely dried on his lease before he decided to seek our city’s highest office,” Jeffrey said in a tweet.

She added, “Compare this to my 35-plus years of living, working and volunteering in Brampton as well as representing constituents on City Council and in the Legislature prior to being elected Mayor.”

Jeffrey, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, was backed by several highprofile politicians, including some of Brown’s former colleagues. She became mayor in 2014 after she defeated then-incumbent Susan Fennell.

In her concession speech Monday night, Jeffrey said, “This result was not what anyone expected. We fought a hard and challenging race. I want to congratulate Patrick Brown as our city’s new mayor.”