Ford enters Tory leadership race awash in escalating internal conflict
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party leadership faced growing backlash this week for proposing to appoint a new leader to replace Patrick Brown.
Brown resigned in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations that left the party reeling and struggling to fill that void.
However, a planned vote by the PC executive Wednesday to overturn a general leadership vote and instead appoint interim leader Vic Fedeli to lead the Tories during the campaign reportedly has candidates, staff and riding association presidents and members considering quitting.
“It’s complete hypocrisy,” a senior party source told Postmedia. A senior Liberal source suggested their messaging will be “the conservatives don’t even trust their own members enough to vote for their leaders, so why should you?”
Meanwhile, Doug Ford, a former Toronto councillor who had already announced his candidacy to be the city’s mayor, announced Monday that he’s seeking the leadership of Ontario’s PC party.
“I am deeply troubled by what I have recently seen unfold in the PC party,” Ford said from the basement of his mother’s Etobicoke home.
“I love the PC party and it is the only party to put Ontario back on the right path.”
Ford said he was throwing his hat in the ring to save the party from what he called political “elites.”
“The elites of this party, the ones who shut out the grassroots, do not want me in this race,” he said.
“I’m here to give a voice … to the hardworking taxpayers of this province, people who have been ignored for far too long. This is truly a critical moment for our party, for our people and for the future of our province.”
Ford is the brother of former mayor Rob Ford and ran but lost in the last mayoral election against John Tory.
The party’s executive announced Friday there would be a leadership race to select a permanent replacement for Brown, who vehemently denies the sexual misconduct allegations made against him.
Caucus members had recommended Nipissing MPP Fedeli carry the party through the upcoming provincial election.
The party also found itself having to fill another vacancy Monday after its president Rick Dykstra resigned abruptly amid a report from Maclean’s magazine on allegations of sexual assault. The allegations have not been proven and Dykstra has not responded to requests for comment.