Patrick Brown gets the green light to enter PC leadership race

Former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown's bid to get his old job back has just been approved by the party's vetting committee.

Thestar.com
Feb. 21, 2018
By Rob Ferguson

Exiled former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown has been given the green light to run for his old job.

The controversial former Tory chief - forced to resign last month after a sexual impropriety scandal involving two 19-year-old women - was given the go-ahead Wednesday by the PC provincial nominations committee.

That means he can seek the party crown against former MPP Christine Elliott, ex-Toronto councillor Doug Ford, rookie PC candidate Caroline Mulroney, and anti-sex-education crusader Tanya Granic Allen, who have also received the stamp of approval.

Brown's candidacy dominated the marathon four-and-a-half-hour Albany Club meeting. Sources said the nominations committee agreed by a margin of 3-2 to let him enter the race.

"Thank you to the thousands of party members and Ontarians who have reached out, spoken out, and stood by me. You have brought me to this point and I won't let you down," Brown tweeted later.

In a separate statement that pointedly did not mention Brown, Elliott noted she remains "only candidate in this race with the ability to unite our members, and the experience to win the next election."

Earlier in the day, Brown told Zoomer Radio AM740 that he was a victim of a "coup" last month.

"Why are they doing all this? Why are they so petrified of my leadership? They know the grassroots of our party are rallying behind me," said the Simcoe North MPP.

Tory members vote online using a ranked ballot between March 2 and 8 with the winner announced March 10.

The victor will try to topple Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals in the June 7 provincial election.

Brown's stunning decision last Friday to throw his hat in the ring for his former post has plunged the party into chaos.

His announcement was the same day interim leader Vic Fedeli banished him from caucus. As an Independent MPP, his assigned seat is in the back row of a remote corner of the legislature, though he has been too busy stumping for his old post to show up at Queen's Park.

"For the next few weeks I've got the leadership campaign. I'm going to be around the province of Ontario to make sure I can finish the job I started," he said in his radio interview.

Compounding the tumult, Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier filed a complaint Tuesday with Ontario's integrity commissioner over Brown's personal finances, which are detailed in the annual public filing all members of provincial parliament must make.

His concern includes how the 39-year-old bachelor could afford a $1.72 million mortgage on a $2.3-million Lake Simcoe waterfront home and who paid for his international travel with his 23-year-old girlfriend, a former Tory intern.

Hillier is accusing Brown of violating the Members' Integrity Act by not fully reporting all sources of income and gifts.

The former PC leader has dismissed the complaint as "ridiculous" and "garbage." Brown has also denied any wrongdoing with the two women who alleged sexual misconduct against him in a CTV story broadcast Jan. 24.

His senior aides quit en masse the night of the CTV broadcast and he himself resigned after a caucus conference call early the next morning.

Tories at Queen's Park were abuzz after the Star disclosed that Brown's on-again-off-again girlfriend, Genevieve Gualtieri, had worked in his office as a 21-year-old intern in 2015.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, who was part of Brown's entourage during a 2016 mission to India, confirmed Gualtieri was on the trip.

MacLeod said she was not aware of any personal relationship between the two.

"I didn't know. She's a lovely girl, and I don't really have any other comment because I didn't know anything until I read (the Star)."

The veteran MPP said she had assumed Gualtieri "was a young staffer."

When asked about the power imbalance in such relationships, MacLeod said it sends a bad signal.

"As a mom who's been here a while, that certainly makes me worry, if my daughter were to get involved in politics and be an intern," she said.

"But just to reiterate on the young lady, I thought she had a bright career ahead of her, and probably still does. She's a very smart girl."

Gualtieri, who was not available for comment Wednesday, has rallied to Brown, calling him "one of the most respectful, decent and caring individuals I have ever met."

"It is wrong how the media has treated him," she said last week.

Asked about the optics of Brown having a relationship with a much younger intern on his payroll and taking her on international trips, Liberal MPP Deb Matthews said: "I think they speak for themselves."

Brown stressed to Zoomer that unnamed enemies have committed a "hatchet job" against him.

"It was absolutely a takedown," he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Brown skipped a scheduled 30-minute feature interview in studio at 10 a.m. with Newstalk1010's Jerry Agar, cancelling at the last minute.

When Agar said it was "unprofessional" for the ex-leader not to keep his appointment, Brown's spokesperson, Alise Mills, insisted her client "did not not show up."

Mills suggested it was a mix-up, but the snub kept the city's top-rated talk radio station abuzz for the rest of Wednesday.