Tories in uncharted territory
Waterloo Region PCs say the departure of Patrick Brown has tipped the Tory ship but some believe it can be righted in time
WATERLOO REGION — Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are scrambling to figure out their next steps in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal that’s unprecedented in Canadian politics — forcing the resignation of a party leader just months before a provincial election.
Waterloo Region’s Tories were quick to distance themselves from former leader Patrick Brown, and threw their support behind two anonymous women who levelled bombshell accusations that date back to when Brown was a federal MP representing Barrie.
Kitchener Conestoga MPP Michael Harris said he slept only about an hour and a half Wednesday night, as he and other members of the PC party caucus learned of the allegations and went into crisis mode.
By the time the sun rose Thursday, they were already making plans to a pick a new interim leader and vowing the scandal wouldn’t derail their hopes for the June election.
“It was unanimous. We agreed Patrick Brown was entitled to due process, but he cannot, and would not, be able to lead us into the election as a result of those troubling allegations,” said Harris, who said he learned of the allegations when Brown’s senior staffers quit, just before the story broke on CTV News Wednesday night. “He’s done. It’s over.” Harris called the story shocking and disturbing. The party needed to act quickly, and urged the leader to step down, after Brown — who denies the allegations — initially said he’d try to weather the storm.
“Those kind of allegations, in this day and age, need to be taken seriously. There’s no room for that here,” Harris said. “We’re obviously thinking of those individuals who were impacted by those allegations, and our thoughts are with them first and foremost. And now we need to go from here.”
Other local conservative candidates were also quick to denounce their former leader.
“Sexual misconduct has no place in our society. I 100 % support women who expose abusive and harassing behaviour. They deserve our respect, plain and simple,” Tweeted Mary Henein Thorn, who’s running in Kitchener Centre.
Amy Fee, the PC candidate in Kitchener South-Hespeler, said she also supported the women who accused Brown.
“We need to remember that it takes tremendous courage to come forward and make these claims — and we need to support these women. I believe we need to strive for Ontario to be a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for everyone.
Unfortunately, these allegations are a strong reminder of how much further we have to go to achieve this goal,” she said, in a statement.
Bill Barlow, a former Cambridge MPP who served in the legislature in the 1980s, said he’d never seen anything like this in all his years in politics.
“I was as shocked as anybody else,” he said. “I thought, my gosh, this is hard to believe. But I think he did the right thing by stepping down.”
The longtime Tory said the big question is whether the party can rebuild its campaign and bounce back from the scandal fast enough to win at the polls in a few short months.
“We will recover, there’s no question about it. But it will be difficult to recover before June,” he said. “Whoever serves as leader, they’re not going to have time to do all the prep work. They’re going to have a very difficult time.”
Political observers agree the Tories have some very big decisions ahead of them. If the party decides there’s no time to hold a proper leadership convention, it could mean an unelected interim leader could potentially become the next premier of Ontario.
“It’s impossible not to see this as a serious blow but does this rule out any chance of success in the election? I don’t think so,” said Emmett Mcfarlane, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo who teaches Canadian politics.
“It’s a really interesting quagmire … But there is some evidence that a new leader would at least have a shot at developing a rapport with the electorate. Not all hope is lost, but they’re going to have an uphill battle.”
It’s impossible to predict how much Brown’s personal scandal might stain the rest of the party, he said. But the story is a reminder of the ugly realities that women sometimes face in politics and elsewhere, he said.
“I think we need to be awake that this is an issue that affects every walk of life, every sector of working life. This isn’t something that’s limited to certain corners, like Hollywood. It’s pervasive, sadly,” Mcfarlane said.
“We hear really ugly things about the climate among staff on Parliament Hill, and what women have faced. So this might actually be a break in the dam. We might suddenly have dozens of these stories coming out, across the country.”
Some critics contend the PCs didn’t go far enough in forcing Brown to step down. Jim Karahalios, a Cambridge conservative activist, said Brown should be kicked out of caucus and not permitted to be a candidate in the next election.
Karahalios, who recently beat a lawsuit brought against him by the PCs, also called on PC party president Rick Dykstra to resign.
Harris, meanwhile, said he’s just stunned at how quickly a political party’s course can be altered. But he’s confident the Tories can recover from this.
The leader may be out, but the party remains intact, he said.
“Parties and governments are bigger than just one person,” he said. “Our party has been around for decades. It’s led Ontario is some of our most prosperous times. It was here before Patrick, and it will be here after Patrick.”