Ont. Tories to ‘root out the rot,’ says interim leader

Fedeli won’t run for permanent job, will focus on internal party issues

TORONTO — The newly appointed interim leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives vowed Tuesday to clean up the party, “root out the rot” and ensure a fair leadership contest following the resignation of top officials amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Vic Fedeli, who was appointed to his post last week following former party leader Patrick Brown’s sudden resignation, said he needed to focus on internal issues ahead of a spring election and would not be making a bid to permanently helm the Tories, as initially planned.

“There are things to fix,” he said. “Fixing this, and it needs fixing, will be a massive undertaking. But it is absolutely essential and absolutely doable if we’re to win the next election.”

The party has been in turmoil since last week when Brown resigned after vehemently denying sexual misconduct allegations reported by CTV News. The Tories also had to deal with the party’s president leaving his post on Sunday amid a separate allegation of sexual assault reported by Maclean’s magazine. None of the allegations have been verified by The Canadian Press.

In the coming weeks, the party will be taking a hard look at its internal processes, including the way it manages its members. Brown boasted in October of growing the party’s base to 127,000 members from about 10,000 following the Tories’ 2014 election loss. The number has since grown to 200,000. Questions have been raised, however, about those figures, which Fedeli said will be scrutinized through an analysis of the party’s membership rolls.

Fedeli, saying the party had been through a “chaotic time” in recent days, also vowed to tackle internal sniping.

“Our party has infighting already ... We can’t have this,” he said. “We need to focus on the one true opponent.”

Party insiders said the infighting can be attributed, in part, to potential leadership candidates and their advisers jockeying for early position and favourable conditions ahead of the upcoming contest, which will be held by the end of March.

The party has been also been dogged by controversial nomination battles in ridings across the province, including allegations of vote-stuffing in races near Hamilton and Ottawa. In the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas police are currently investigating the PC nomination. The party eventually hired auditors from Pricewaterhouse-Coopers to oversee their nominations contests after complaints about the votes began to emerge.

Amid the internal cleanup that will take place, the party is also working on establishing rules that will govern its leadership race.

There is only one candidate officially in the running — Toronto politician Doug Ford, brother of the city’s late former mayor Rob Ford.