Two Ottawa PC ridings see volunteers resign en masse

Associations decry election controversy, change in party’s political ideology

Differences with Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown have triggered the mass resignation of volunteers from two Tory riding associations in Ottawa.

The Ottawa West—Nepean executive board quit on Friday in protest over ballot-stuffing allegations last month in the controversial nomination there.

That exodus followed the KanataCarleton PC riding association’s decision to break with the party on June 11, complaining of a “toxic and destructive” environment.

In a letter to PC executive director Bob Stanley, departing Ottawa West—Nepean riding association president Emma McLennan said the entire executive would step down.

“We will not continue to support a leadership that condoned the serious, even fraudulent, irregularities at our nomination meeting,” McLennan wrote.

The situation in Kanata-Carleton differs because it is about political ideology, not electoral problems.

In a June 11 email to PC executive director Stanley, former riding association president Tim Broschuk decried the centrist direction Brown is taking the Tories.

“The party has veered so far from the place we joined that we can no longer in good conscience say that we identify with what it stands for,” Broschuk said.

Rick Dykstra, the PC party president, played down the controversies in the two Ottawa constituencies.

“There will be new annual general meetings in these ridings to elect new executive members, who I know will help us mount a formidable campaign effort to beat the Liberals in the next election,” Dykstra said in an email.