Interim leader gives PCs ‘clean bill of health’
Fedeli claims party has solved campaign, finance issues in just 39 days
The Progressive Conservative party now has a “clean bill of health” after rooting out rot under ousted leader Patrick Brown, interim boss Vic Fedeli boasted Tuesday.
With the results of an expedited leadership race to be released Saturday, the PCs are “turning a new page” after 39 days of efforts to clear up questionable business practices and disputed candidate nomination races, he said in a speech to MPPs and staff.
“Contracts for unknown services have been cancelled” and “excessive spending that oc- curred in the past has been reined in,” he added, without providing dollar figures.
Among the Brown-era payments axed were monthly stipends provided to a nominated candidate in a southwestern Ontario riding and to two regional organizers.
Just three months from the June 7 provincial election, rival parties quickly cast doubt on Fedeli’s claims, saying the PCs have a long way to go to convince voters they can be trusted. The Liberals noted Hamilton police are still conducting a criminal investigation into a candidate nomination meeting in Hamilton West—Ancaster— Dundas and some party members are having difficulty with the online leadership voting system that hopeful Doug Ford says is “broken.”
“They can’t even govern their own party but they’re trying to pose themselves as being able to actually run the government of Ontario,” said New Democrat MPP Cindy Forster (Welland).
“I would say they need to get their house in order.”
A new nomination race is being held Wednesday in Ottawa West-Nepean, where disputed winner Karma Mcgregor, the mother of a former senior Brown staffer, is not running and Jeremy Roberts will be acclaimed. No date has been set for a new nomination meeting in Scarborough Centre.
Fedeli acknowledged “there will always be more work to be done” and pointed to improvements in fundraising and attracting volunteers since Brown resigned amid sexualmisconduct allegations and party president Rick Dykstra quit following accusations of sexual asault.
“We are bigger than any one individual,” said Fedeli, who booted Brown from the PC caucus Feb. 16, forcing him to sit as an Independent MPP. He has not yet taken that seat in the Legislature and it will be up to a new leader to decide if he can re-join the Tory caucus.