Patrick Brown gets the green light to run
PC panel approves bid to get his old job back
Exiled former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown’s bid to run for his old job has been approved by the party’s vetting committee.
The controversial former Tory chief — forced to resign Jan. 25 after a sexual impropriety scandal involving teenage girls — was given the green light Wednesday by the PC provincial nomination committee.
That means he has been permitted to seek the party crown against former MPP Christine Elliott, ex-Toronto councillor Doug Ford, rookie PC candidate Caroline Mulroney, and anti-sex education crusader Tanya Granic Allen.
After a marathon four-and-a-halfhour Albany Club meeting, the nomination committee agreed by a margin of 3-2 to let Brown enter the race.
Earlier in the day, Brown told Zoomer Radio AM740 that he was a victim of a “coup” last month.
“Why are they doing all this? Why are they so petrified of my leadership? They know the grassroots of our party are rallying behind me,” the Simcoe North MPP said.
Tory members vote online on a ranked ballot between March 2 and 8 with the winner announced March 10.
Brown’s stunning decision last Friday to throw his hat in the ring for his former post has plunged the party into chaos.
His announcement was the same day interim leader Vic Fedeli banished him from caucus. That means he now sits as an Independent MPP in the back row of a remote corner of the legislature.
Compounding the tumult, PC MPP Randy Hillier filed a complaint Tuesday with Ontario’s integrity commissioner over Brown’s personal finances, which are detailed in the annual public filing all members of provincial parliament must make.
His concern includes how the 39-year-old bachelor could afford a $1.72 million mortgage on a $2.3 million Lake Simcoe waterfront home and who paid for his international travel with his 23year-old girlfriend, a former Tory intern.
Hillier is accusing Brown of violating the Members’ Integrity Act by not fully reporting all sources of income and gifts.
The former PC leader has dismissed the complaint as “ridiculous” and “garbage.” Brown has also denied any wrongdoing with the two anonymous women who alleged sexual misconduct against him in a CTV story broadcast Jan. 24.
His senior aides quit en masse the night of the CTV broadcast and he himself resigned after a caucus conference call early the next morning.
Tories at Queen’s Park were abuzz after the Toronto Star disclosed that Brown’s on-againoff-again girlfriend, Genevieve Gualtieri, had worked in his office as a 21-year-old intern in 2015.
Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, who was part of Brown’s entourage during a 2016 mission to India, confirmed Gualtieri was on the trip. MacLeod said she was not aware of any personal relationship between the two.
“I didn’t know,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday. “She’s a lovely girl, and I don’t really have any other comment because I didn’t know anything until I read (the Star) today.” The veteran MPP said she had assumed Gualtieri “was a young staffer.”
When asked about the power imbalance in such relationships, MacLeod said it sends a bad signal.
“As a mom who’s been here awhile, that certainly makes me worry, if my daughter were to get involved in politics and be an intern,” she said.
“But just to reiterate on the young lady, I thought she had a bright career ahead of her, and probably still does. She’s a very smart girl.”
Gualtieri, who was not available for comment Wednesday, has praised Brown, calling him “one of the most respectful, decent and caring individuals I have ever met.”
“It is wrong how the media has treated him,” she said Tuesday.
Asked about the optics of Brown having a relationship with a much younger intern on the payroll and taking her on international trips, Liberal MPP Deb Matthews said: “I think they speak for themselves.”
Brown told Zoomer that unnamed enemies have committed a “hatchet job” against him.
“It was absolutely a takedown,” he said, signalling he will not be in the legislature any time soon. “For the next few weeks I’ve got the leadership campaign. I’m going to be around the province of Ontario to make sure I can finish the job I started.”
Earlier Wednesday, Brown skipped a scheduled 30-minute interview in studio at 10 a.m. with Newstalk1010’s Jerry Agar, cancelling at the last minute.
When Agar said it was “unprofessional” for the ex-leader not to keep his appointment, Brown’s spokesperson, Alise Mills, insisted her client “did not not show up.”
Mills suggested it was a mixup, but the snub kept the city’s leading talk radio station abuzz for the rest of Wednesday.