Elliott to campaign in Peterborough on Tuesday afternoon
Fresh off receiving the endorsement of Peterborough-Kawartha Progressive Conservative candidate David Smith on Saturday, party leadership candidate Christine Elliott will be campaigning in Peterborough on Tuesday.
Elliott, who was the MPP for the Whitby area from 2006 to 2015, will hold a rally Tuesday starting at 4 p.m. at the Peterborough Naval Association clubhouse at 24 Whitlaw St.
Smith endorsed her Saturday via Twitter: “Christina offers the perfect combination of fiscal responsibility, education, experience and integrity with her pledge of open votes on issues of conscience,” Smith wrote.
Elliott is the second of the five leadership candidates to campaign in Peterborough. Doug Ford made stops at the Carousel Restaurant in Peterborough and the Howard Johnson Inn in Lindsay on Wednesday.
The other candidates in the leadership race are York-Simcoe candidate Caroline Mulroney (daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney), former leader Patrick Brown, who is re-seeking the post after prompting the leadership race with his resignation last month over sexual assault allegations, and social conservative Tonya Granic Allen.
Party members are voting March 2 to 8 for a new leader. The winner, to be announced at a March 10 convention, will lead the party in the June 7 provincial election.
The contest is using an electoral college system in which the vote in each riding in the province will count equally.
The National Post published internal polling results it obtained from Brown’s campaign that found Elliott and Brown neck and neck as the frontrunners in the campaign at about 28 per cent each, followed by Ford at 22 per cent, Mulroney at 14 per cent and Allen at 7 per cent among decided party members. About 18 per cent were undecided.
The Mainstreet Research poll contacted between 4,412 and 6,096 paidup members of the party each day from Feb. 20 to 22, but the margin of error for the poll is not known.
Meanwhile, Brown, whose resignation in the face of allegations prompted his resignation and the ensuing leadership race, has filed notice of libel to CTV News, which last month reported allegations of sexual misconduct that he has categorically denied.
The Barrie, Ont ., politician abruptly resigned as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party on Jan. 25, hours after CTV reported the allegations, but he has since joined the race to reclaim the job.
The notice filed on Friday says CTV’s reporting was “false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory.”
A spokesman for CTV says the network has received the notice, stands by its reporting and will “actively defend its journalism in court.”
The notice names the news network, its parent company Bell Media, the president of CTV News, anchor Lisa LaFlamme, and reporters Glen McGregor and Rachel Aiello.
It also lists the producers, editors, researchers and fact checkers who worked on the story.
It further names CP24, which is also owned by Bell Media, and reporter Travis Dhanraj.
With files from The National Post