Brown calls letter ‘mistake’
PC leader maintains he didn’t see sex-ed letter, despite fact chief of staff, president did
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown insists he knew nothing about the notorious sex-education letter circulated during the Scarborough byelection — even though his chief of staff and the PC party president did. Facing reporters Monday at Queen’s Park for the first time since the questions about his role began swirling, Brown repeatedly said that “a mistake was made.”
“I did not see the letter. I assumed responsibility and I apologized. It’s a mistake I hope never happens again,” the leader said.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with me. A mistake was made and lessons were learned.”
During the Scarborough-Rouge River byelection won by Tory Raymond Cho on Sept. 1, the party distributed 13,000 letters in English and Chinese — signed by Brown and dated Aug. 24 — promising to “scrap” the new sex-education curriculum if elected in 2018.
After five days of fallout, the PC leader finally renounced that stance in an opinion piece for the Star on Aug. 29.
“I certainly wasn’t comfortable with the contents. My opinion piece makes my position abundantly clear on this,” he said Monday, emphasizing a Tory government would not axe the updated curriculum.
But on Aug. 25, Brown’s chief of staff, Nicolas Pappalardo, sent an email tipping off Queenie Yu, an independent byelection candidate running on an anti-sex-education platform, about the Tory strategy.
That email, first obtained by The Canadian Press, bore the subject heading “Letter from the Leader of the PC Party of Ontario.”
“Queenie, as a courtesy, please find attached an open letter to parents from the Leader of the PC Party of Ontario. It will be distributed in the riding this weekend. Best Regards, Nicolas,” reads the message, which Yu also provided to the Star.
On Sept. 1, PC party president Rick Dykstra admitted on CP24 that he, too, knew the missive was going out.
“Well, the letter, obviously, when it was first put out, I knew about, yes, because it, obviously, was being distributed,” Dykstra, a friend of Brown’s, told the all-news station during its live byelection night coverage.
Brown could not explain how his chief of staff and the party president were in the loop on something done in his name without his approval.
“We obviously don’t comment on the internal operations of my office or the party,” he said.
The PC leader did, however, weigh in on a Conservative Leadership Foundation youth training session last month that was spoiled by shoethrowing, sexist language and some participants being denied timely access to food or water.
“I think it’s fair to say you’re not going to see future CLF training. I do believe it’s important to train young people, but certainly I was disappointed with the stories I heard about that,” said Brown.
As revealed by the Star, the Aug. 12-14 boot camp for young volunteers at McMaster University’s Les Prince Hall went off the rails.
About 140 young Tories paid between $295 and $395 for the event and the party received dozens of complaints from participants and their parents.
The PC party has since sent them a formal apology.