Approval of ex-leader’s entry in race a double-edged sword for the Tories

Patrick Brown has passed the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario’s unique candidate-vetting process, meaning he can now can push ahead with his unlikely campaign to be party leader, a post he quit less than a month ago.

Word on the screening came down from the Tories’ provincial nominations committee late Wednesday afternoon, ending a day of suspense and speculation that Brown might be denied even the chance to reclaim his old job.

“Green lit,” declared campaign spokeswoman Alise Mills on receiving the verdict.

All the other candidates expecting an answer Wednesday were also approved, said Hartley Lefton, chair of the party ’s leadership steering committee.

The biggest question mark, however, hung over Brown following sexual misconduct allegations that prompted him to relinquish the top post Jan. 24. He has vigorously denied those charges and insisted last week his name had been cleared, joining the leadership election set up to replace him.

The many Progressive Conservatives who still support him urged the party to approve Brown, with dozens rallying outside PC headquarters Tuesday night. Brown and supporters have repeatedly charged that he was forced to step down because of a plot by political enemies and some loyalists suggested a negative vetting result would confirm those suspicions.

Yet for the Tories, the screening outcome is a double-edged sword, suggested pollster Lorne Bozinoff of Forum Research.

On the one hand, they wouldn’t want to look undemocratic by barring Brown from running. On the other hand, they have now ushered into the leadership contest a candidate who, justifiably or not, comes with a cloud over his head, he said.

The Progressive Conservatives seemed to have more than recovered from the shock of Brown’s resignation, putting forward a lineup of credible, “brand-name” leadership candidates, Bozinoff noted. As recently as a few days ago, a Forum poll had them in a commanding lead over the governing Liberals and the NDP.

“All they had to do was have a polite leadership race where they debate the issues and people of good character run and they don’t have a lot of baggage,” said Bozinoff. “Now, though, Patrick Brown just drags all this controversy into the race.”

The committee’s decisions Wednesday followed a spate of interviews with most of the leadership hopefuls the day before.

Mills said Brown’s session Tuesday went well, the panel appearing pleased with his answers when they asked if his unique situation would be a distraction if he became leader again.

All five of the would-be contenders have to run for the legislature as Progressive Conservative candidates and undergo the vetting process required of candidates at the riding level.

Lawyer Caroline Mulroney, having already been nominated in a riding, was successfully vetted earlier. But rivals Doug Ford, Christine Elliott and Tanya Granic Allen still had to submit to the process and were interviewed by the committee Tuesday.

A senior party source said the assessment is designed largely to determine if would-be MPP candidates would become a distracting “sideshow” because of something they did in the past.

As an already approved candidate until recently in the Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte riding, Brown would actually have been exempt from the vetting process entirely, the party official said.

But when Vic Fedeli, the interim Progressive Conservative leader, asked Friday that he be removed as the party’s nominee there — after Fedeli also kicked him out of the PC caucus — that made the screening a necessity, the source said.

The Tories say their requirement that leadership contestants undergo candidate screening appears to be a first for any party in Canada.

Jim Karahalios, who became a high-profile opponent of Brown over the past year and was ejected from the party in the process, said he was not surprised by the vetting result.

Most of the party executive and members of the nominations committee got their positions when Brown was leader and remained loyal to him, he charged.

All they had to do was have a polite leadership race ... Now, though, Patrick Brown just drags all this controversy into the race.