Premier breaks silence on Brown letter debacle
Wynne called the PC leader’s claimed ignorance unlikely
The Progressive Conservatives’ rookie leader needs to get his office in order after his party’s sex-education flip-flop flap, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.
“Patrick Brown has a lot to sort out in terms of what did or didn’t happen,” she told reporters Tuesday at Queen’s Park.
Wynne suggested it’s implausible that Brown was out of the loop when the Tories promised in writing — under his signature — to axe the updated sex-education curriculum.
“When there’s a major change in our office — or when there’s a policy decision — I know about that decision. And I authorize it or not,” the premier said.
It was her first public comment about the Progressive Conservatives’ internal troubles since they circulated 13,000 signed letters during the Sept. 1 Scarborough-Rouge River byelection promising to “scrap” the updated health curriculum if elected in 2018.
After five days of blowback, Brown renounced that stance in a Star opinion piece, saying he would retain the modernized syllabus and insisted he did not know the letter was being distributed.
He initially blamed overzealous local campaign staff helping Tory candidate Raymond Cho.
But the day after Cho won the byelection, it emerged that both Brown’s chief of staff, Nicolas Pappalardo, and PC party president Rick Dykstra knew the letter — in English and Chinese — would be circulated.
Wynne did not conceal her displeasure at the curriculum being used as campaign fodder during a byelection.
“As for the politics around Patrick Brown, he’s got his own issues to sort out about what he believes or doesn’t believe,” she said.
“I have been completely consistent on the need for an upgraded sexeducation curriculum in this province. We have talked to thousands of parents and experts across the province.”
“What we know is that kids need to be safe. They need information to keep them safe in this world where they can get information from all manner of sources that 20 years ago they couldn’t get.”
Brown reiterated Tuesday that the debacle “was a mistake.”
“It’s why I apologized for it and I’ve said that it can’t happen again,” said the Tory leader, who took the reins of the party 16 months ago.
“We’re doing our own internal assessment to make sure (of that) and certainly I’m going to be a lot more hands-on,” he said.
Brown has yet to be able to explain how his chief of staff and the party president were in the loop on something done under his signature without his approval. On Friday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said that such a thing wouldn’t happen in her party.
“We work as a team in my office, and certainly I am pretty much dialed into everything,” said Horwath.
“As leader, that’s my responsibility and that’s something I’ve made sure occurs.”