Texts that sank Kitchener Tory MPP revealed

KITCHENER — A transcript of the BlackBerry Messenger conversation that upended Michael Harris’ career prompts further questions about why the exchange was deemed a firing offence.

Harris, the now-independent MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, was dismissed as a Progressive Conservative candidate and kicked out of caucus last month over a 2012 text message conversation with a former party intern.

The BBM conversation took place over several hours one night in October 2012, and was reviewed by the Tories in 2013 when the former intern complained she’d been passed over for a party job.

It was deemed a non-issue at the time. Five and a half years later, someone within the party leaked that transcript to the Doug Ford leadership — and the MPP was promptly booted out.

The conversation began when the former intern, who did not file a complaint about the conversation, added the MPP as a contact on BlackBerry Messenger. Harris, who had been at a Rush concert in Toronto, was out having a few drinks with friends while they texted back and forth.

“BBM add, eh?” he texted her. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

The banter was flirty and went both ways — she called Harris “one of the more attractive members of caucus” and he asked her to send him a photo.

The MPP was 33 years old and unmarried at the time; the former intern was in her 20s.

She responded that there was already a “long list of people” who had nude photos of her, and declined to come out for a drink, since “that would be a booty call.” The woman, then a grad student, said she wanted to talk about why she was passed over by the party for a part-time job — and suggested her behaviour while employed as a PC intern made her a “liability.” Harris didn’t offer advice, but suggested they meet for breakfast to talk more.

The woman, who was no longer employed by the party at that time, knew the MPP was out drinking and said meeting up in person might lead to an “all-nighter.”

“I mean, you’re obviously drunk and I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you,” she wrote.

The conversation ended cordially, with a “goodnight.” Harris has said they never spoke after that, and things never progressed beyond their flirty exchange.

His wife Sarah Harris says she’s angry the incident was made to appear worse that it was by the Doug Ford campaign — and says her young family has been badly hurt by the fallout.

“Mike and I dealt with this issue years ago. I feel that in no way should this flirtatious conversation between two adults have resulted in Mike not being able to run for the PCs,” she said. “He did the best job he could as an MPP, and they took that away from him ... There’s no words for what they have tried to do to our family. It’s not right, what happened.”

She said the conversation was blown out of proportion. “This never should have come to be what it has become. This was a personal matter,” she said.

“This has probably been the hardest thing I’ve ever been through ... Our kids have only ever known their father as an MPP, and he loved what he did. We all loved serving this community.”

Ford’s campaign has declined to answer questions about why the BBM transcript resurfaced years after it was first dealt with by the party.

Harris has called it an “embarrassing lapse in judgment,” and apologized in person to the former intern, who now works as a civil servant. Both the MPP and the woman declined to comment further on their conversation.

Ford, whose leadership was opposed by Harris when he chaired the campaign of challenger Christine Elliott, said the party had no choice but to turf the two-time incumbent.

The PC leader replaced the MPP with Mike Harris Jr., a political newcomer who’s the son of the former premier and one of the party’s biggest fundraisers, Mike Harris Sr.

Sarah Harris, one of three people who had hoped to run for the nomination to replace her husband, is upset the leader overrode local wishes to pick a new candidate.

“I’m really saddened that Doug Ford took the community’s opportunity away to have their democratic say,” she said. “People have a right to have a vote on who’s going to represent them. You don’t take that away from them.”

The party initially said the decision to turf the MPP was the “unanimous” conclusion of the Tories’ provincial nomination committee — an assertion later denied by Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett, who sits on the committee.

Ford’s campaign declined to say whether the new leader reviewed the BBM transcript before Harris was kicked out.

“(Doug Ford) cannot speak to what happened in previous administrations. We have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of misconduct in our party,” Melanie Paradis, press secretary for the Ford campaign, said in a previous email.

Harris’ supporters are contrasting the decision to turf the MPP with the case of Andrew Lawton, who was appointed to run as the Progressive Conservative candidate in London West. Lawton, now in hot water over misogynistic, Islamophobic, racist and homophobic remarks he made on social media years ago, was handpicked by Ford to represent the party. Like Harris, Lawton would have been vetted through the same selection process all PC candidates must pass through — including a review of his social media activity. Lawton has called his past comments “reckless” and blamed it on his struggle with mental illness.