Brown abandons bid for Tory leadership amid probe
Integrity commissioner announces ‘inquiry’
TORONTO — Ousted former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown has abandoned his comeback attempt to lead the party.
Six hours after the Toronto Star posted a story about his apparent involvement in a Tory candidate nomination being investigated by Hamilton police, Brown announced Monday afternoon he was giving up his campaign for the PC helm.
“I simply cannot run a provincial party leadership campaign … while at the same time continuing my fight to prove that the allegations are lies. You simply cannot shoot on two nets at the same time,” he said.
That’s a reference to the Jan. 24 CTV News report about two women who alleged sexual misconduct against him when they were 19 years old and he was a Conservative MP.
In a four-page letter to party brass, Brown admitted his latest leadership bid was “a source of distraction” as the Tories gear up to fight Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in the June 7 election.
His departure comes before the final all-candidates’ debate in Ottawa on Wednesday night.
It leaves former MPP Christine
Elliott, ex-Toronto councillor Doug Ford, rookie PC candidate Caroline Mulroney and social conservative activist Tanya Granic Allen as the remaining leadership hopefuls.
Last week, the Toronto Star revealed the provincial integrity commissioner was querying Brown about rental income on his $2.3-million Lake Simcoe home, on which he has a $1.72million mortgage despite earning $180,000 a year.
That prompted Mulroney on Friday to say “our party is in crisis” because the ex-leader was putting his personal ambitions first.
“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen allegations of misconduct, wrongdoing and fighting within our party,” she said at the time.
“(Thursday) night, I learned Patrick Brown is under investigation by the integrity commissioner, proving once again that these distractions have no place in the leadership race. I hope that he does the right thing for the party and steps aside.”
Hamilton police are investigating allegations of ballot-box stuffing during the Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas nomination contest. Last week, Ken Zeise, co-chair of the party’s provincial nominations committee, backed Ben Levitt (who won the vote) saying “we have no allegations of wrongdoing” involving the candidate or his campaign.
Brown, 39, was originally forced to quit as Tory leader on Jan. 25 after the CTV News report.
He has filed a libel notice against CTV News, calling the story “false” and saying it subjected him to “ridicule, hatred and contempt.”
The Simcoe North MPP, who now sits as an independent after being ejected from the Tory caucus, called on CTV to retract and apologize for “false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory” stories that accused him of improprieties involving inebriated teens while he was sober.
CTV News said Saturday it “stands by its reporting and will actively defend its journalism in court.”
Brown stunned Tories when he announced on Feb. 16 — just two hours before the deadline for entry — that he was jumping into the leadership race again.
“I think my name has been cleared and now it’s about getting Ontario back on track,” he said.
His confidence that day was in stark contrast to his tearful 81second news conference at Queen’s Park on Jan. 24, hours before resigning in a caucus call with other PC MPPs.
Interim Tory leader Vic Fedeli kicked him out of caucus on Feb. 16, several hours before Brown joined the leadership race.
Fedeli said Monday the exleader made “the right decision for himself and the Ontario PC Party.”
Last week, Tory MPP Randy Hillier launched a complaint with the integrity commissioner about Brown’s finances and raised questions about several overseas trips the leader took.
Brown has dismissed Hillier’s complaint as “garbage.”
In a statement Monday, the office of J. David Wake said the independent legislative watchdog “is conducting an inquiry under” a section of the Members’ Integrity Act.
“The inquiry is in response to a request from Randy Hillier, MPP Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, about Patrick Brown, MPP Simcoe North,” the commissioner’s office adding Wake would “have no further comment about the inquiry.”
The drama comes against the backdrop of a looming PC leadership and a June 7 provincial election. Online voting for the Tory leadership starts this Friday and continues until March 8 with the winner announced March 10 at the Hilton Markham Convention Centre.