The man who wasn’t there
Elliott, Ford and Mulroney suggest former leader has chance to run in election
Patrick Brown remains a lightning rod as candidates debate whether he should be allowed to run under Tory banner,
Patrick Brown is out of the race for his old job as Progressive Conservative leader but remained a lightning rod as candidates debated whether he should be allowed to run under the party banner in the June 7 provincial election.
All but one of the four hopefuls suggested Brown still has a chance, but none would specify the test he must meet to put sexual misconduct allegations to rest.
“That’s up to others to decide,” former Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott told the 90-minute debate at an Ottawa convention centre hosted by the Huffington Post and moderated by journalist Althia Raj. “If he is able to clear his name . . . yes, I would allow him to run.”
Later, Elliott told reporters “there has to be some objective evidence there.”
Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, agreed Brown’s future as a candidate — he is already nominated to run in Barrie-Springwater-Oro Medonte — depends on the status of all accusations against him at the time.
“Saying you’ve cleared your name and clearing your name are two different things,” she added in a shot at Brown as the party tries to distance itself from controversy surrounding him for the last month.
Voting by party members for a new leader begins Friday and concludes March 8 with a winner to be announced at a convention in Markham on March 10.
Brown quit the contest on Monday after just over a week on the hustings saying he can’t fight the sexual accusations, which he calls “lies,” and a leadership battle at the same time.
His abrupt departure followed revelations in the Star about his apparent involvement in a Tory riding nomination under investigation by Hamilton police, and a separate probe into questions about his personal finances by Ontario’s integrity commissioner.
Former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford tried to brush aside the Brown question, saying “he has to take care of a few things.”
“Once I’m premier, or leader, we’ll sit down.”
Anti-sex education advocate and social conservative Tanya Granic Allen took her better-known rivals to task, saying they should “look long and hard at their response.”
“He will not be a candidate under my leadership,” Allen said sternly, slamming Brown for “corruption” in the party and saying she was “disappointed” he wasn’t at the debate.
Privately, some Tory MPPs have said the three best-known leadership candidates are taking an openminded stance on Brown in hopes of wooing his supporters.
But there is expected to be a strong push in the PC caucus once a new leader is chosen to keep Brown off the ballot as Conservative, meaning he would have to run as an independent.
Progressive Conservative interim leader Vic Fedeli booted Brown from the caucus on Feb. 16, just hours before his ill-fated decision to enter the race to replace himself.
With more at stake as voting looms, the debate took on a chippier tone than a matchup two weeks ago.
Allen, who blamed low student math scores on anal sex in the previous debate, took a blast from Mulroney: “My children learned more about sex from the TVO debate than they have in school.”
Elliott, a lawyer, also pounced on Allen for promising to “rip (wind turbines) right out of the ground” and pass new legislation to terminate contracts with operators.
She urged Allen to take the implications “more seriously” because tearing them up would “cost a fortune” and scare away investors from the province.
Ford took aim at Elliott, a family friend, for taking the $220,000-ayear job as Ontario’s first patient ombudsman, a position created by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. “People need to know which Christine they’re going to get,” Ford chided her.
Elliott rejected his accusation it was a patronage job and that she is an “insider.”
“I was chosen for this by an independent panel,” she retorted. “I don’t have anything to apologize to you for.”
‘Saying you’ve cleared your name and clearing your name are two different things.’
CAROLINE MULRONEY ON FORMER TORY LEADER PATRICK BROWN