Ontario Tories will select permanent leader by spring election
Posted Jan 26, 2018 05:35:52 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives will hold a leadership race to replace Patrick Brown, who resigned this week in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.
The party’s executive voted today to hold the race and select a new leader sometime before March, ahead of the spring election.
Party president Rick Dykstra says the executive has not yet established a firm time frame for the race.
The executive’s decision runs contrary to the wishes of the party’s caucus, which named Tory finance critic Vic Fedeli as interim leader earlier in the day and wanted him to serve as permanent party leader through the upcoming election.
Grassroots party members and a number of candidates called on the executive to hold a leadership election to give them a voice in who would lead the provincial Tories.
Brown announced his resignation as party leader early Thursday, hours after emphatically denying what he called “troubling allegations” about his conduct and his character. The allegations, which have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press, were made by two women who spoke to CTV News.
