PATRICK BROWN

UNDER THE RADAR

The mayor of Brampton, Ont., has a reputation for being one of the strongest mobilizers in the conservative coalition, and he's staying true to his word, according to his team.

Patrick Brown starts his morning very early and works until the wee hours, depending on the community events he is set to do around the country. His posts on social media show him meeting in small groups with mostly cultural communities and religious groups, and he has visited certain cities two or three times already in the race.

“Right now, Mayor Brown is working incredibly hard trying to meet as many new people as possible to grow our party, particularly in communities and regions where we need to win the next election. He is an absolute workhorse. He's doing 20, 30 events a day,” said Fred Delorey, his campaign chair.

Brown has shied away from mainstream media, but has given more than 100 interviews to ethnic media, according to Delorey. And the message he is pushing is fighting against Quebec's law on religious signs, as well as the 2015 Conservative promises of banning the niqab in citizenship ceremonies and the “barbaric cultural practices” tip line.

Brown is also greatly benefiting from having Alberta veteran MP Michelle Rempel Garner by his side, as she can open many new doors for him in Western Canada.

“What Patrick had going into this was a massive organization in Ontario and a network across the country, but not a lot of presence in Western Canada. What you have with Michelle is someone who is at least his equal in terms of organizational capacity in Western Canada, if not his superior, frankly,” said Melanie Paradis, a veteran of the past two leadership races.

“So they're actually an incredibly powerful duo in terms of their organization. And they're also incredibly focused and very hardworking, relentlessly hardworking people,” added Paradis, who served as deputy campaign director under former leader Erin O'toole.

(She is staying neutral in this current leadership race.)

Chris Chapin, a longtime Conservative who held senior roles at Queen's Park, said Brown is using similar strategies compared to when he surprised everyone by becoming leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives in 2015 by appealing to cultural communities.

But his “flip-flopping” on the carbon tax, for instance, could prove to be a challenge.