Ford says call for probe is ‘desperation’

Provincial Liberals wrote OPP over apparent incorporation of 15 companies linked to Tory MPP

Amid questions swirling around a Toronto Progressive Conservative MPP, Doug Ford is accusing the Liberals of “desperation” because “their campaign is falling apart.”

In the wake of a Liberal complaint to the Ontario Provincial Police about financial dealings related to Don Valley North incumbent Vincent Ke, the Tory leader lashed out Wednesday.

“This is desperation from the Liberals,” Ford said in Brampton. His comments came about an hour after Ian Hall, executive director of the Ontario Liberal Party, wrote the OPP to urge an investigation into the apparent incorporation of 15 companies linked to Ke’s office.

“It has come to our attention that Vincent Ke’s staff, their families and donors have set up at least 15 corporations for unclear reasons and at least one instance they were awarded an Ontario government grant,” Hall wrote. “Having researched the matter, we have concerns that these actions may constitute a potential breach of trust.”

With the election a week from Thursday, Ford insisted nothing untoward has happened.

“We’ve looked into it. It’s totally inaccurate. They’re throwing all these accusations out because their campaign is falling apart,” he said.

“They’re desperate right now. We know they’re going to throw everything they can at us,” he said. “It’s just not accurate. I’m not going to dig into the weeds, but it’s absolutely ridiculous. Vincent Ke is a great member. I’ll call it politics.”

Ke, for his part, echoed Ford’s comments, stressing “these insinuations from the Liberal campaign are categorically false.”

“This is a desperate attack from the Del Duca-Wynne Liberals to distract from their failing campaign,” he said, referring to former premier Kathleen Wynne in whose cabinet Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca served.

Hall’s letter to the OPP — sparked by a tip to the Liberals from an “anonymous whistleblower” — expresses concern about a number of companies that are registered to residential addresses of Ke’s staff and their families.

“This raises an important question of why, following Ke’s election to public office, his staff and associates would work to create corporation after corporation,” Hall wrote.

“It is important that the air be cleared around this and that these individuals are not abusing Mr. Ke’s role as a member of provincial Parliament,” he continued.

“Of particular concern, is the ‘Agincourt Chinese Canadian Association’ with a sole director of John Jiancheng Huang (husband to MPP assistant Yueyue Zhang) which received $25,000 from the Ontario government.”

The Conservative campaign countered that the couple separated in 2018 and divorced last year.

But a Liberal campaign official said in 2020, “two years after their alleged separation,” the same address was used to incorporate the Toronto Chinese Alliance Association.

Hall said the $25,000 for the Agincourt association was to “impact over 800 Ontario seniors by training 40 senior members to become mental health volunteers/ambassadors to provide group support for participants.”

He alleged “we are unable to find any details about the organization or how this money was spent to benefit seniors.

“We also note that one of the corporations currently shares an address with Vincent Ke’s campaign office, further tying the MPP to these organizations.”

Del Duca, for his part, was defending his own campaign against NDP allegations that Chatham-KentLeamington Liberal candidate Audrey Festeryga used fraudulent signatures on her nomination papers.

‘‘ These insinuations from the Liberal campaign are categorically false ... This is a desperate attack from the Del Duca Wynne Liberals to distract from their failing campaign.

“(Elections Ontario will) do the job that they’re supposed to be doing, they’ll do their work — I will continue to focus on the positive forward-looking plan that Ontario Liberals are bringing forward,” Del Duca said.

He again tried to appeal to NDP voters to come into his camp.

“The only way to stop Doug Ford and the only way to elect a truly progressive government at Queen’s Park is to choose the new Liberal team and our plan,” Del Duca said. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who spent the morning in Etobicoke before heading to Peterborough to survey the damage from the weekend’s storm, said more Ontarians want Ford out of office than in. She slammed the Liberals for inaction during their 15 years in power between 2003 and 2018.

“We can’t rely on the Liberals to fix the things that they broke,” she said.

Despite polls suggesting otherwise, Horwath said she is confident all of the current New Democratic MPPs will be re-elected and predicted her party could win some Tory seats in places like Brampton.

“We’re going to keep talking to folks in the ridings … because people need to know that there is hope, that we just don’t have to keep going back and forth between Liberals and Conservatives.”

VINCENT KE PC CANDIDATE FOR DON VALLEY NORTH