PCs will pick new leader by June election
Interim leader Vic Fedeli plans to run for job
TORONTO — Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives will hold a leadership race to replace Patrick Brown, who resigned this week in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.
Party officials and members are downplaying the risk it will create divisions within the party ahead of a spring provincial election.
The party’s executive voted late Friday afternoon to hold the race and select a new leader sometime before March. The move will please some candidates and grassroots party members who insisted they should have a direct say in the leadership decision but runs contrary to the wishes of the party’s caucus, which named Tory finance critic Vic Fedeli as interim leader earlier in the day.
The caucus of elected legislators wanted Fedeli to lead the party through the election to avoid a divisive, and potentially costly, race.
Party president Rick Dykstra said the executive has not yet established a firm time frame for the race but conceded it will be a challenge.
“This will be a very aggressive time frame,” he said. “Look ... this is going to have to be a very quick process.”
Dykstra said the party will form a committee to set up and oversee the leadership race. He insisted that the PCs can remain united throughout the contest.
Fedeli told reporters that he respects the decision and will be a candidate for the permanent leadership.
“I fully expect to be the leader that takes us into the election,” he said. “I was made party leader by the caucus in a unanimous decision today and now the executive have asked that we go into a leadership race. I fully support their decision. They have the final say the way our constitution works.”
Fedeli said he will stress his record, both in business and political life, in the upcoming race. He also downplayed the notion that the race could cause fractures in the party.
Rod Phillips, the former Postmedia executive and star candidate for the party running in Ajax, co-signed a letter Thursday with 27 other Tory candidates asking the party executive to hold a leadership election. Speculation is he will run along with Carolne Mulroney and Christine Elliott.