Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 28, 2018
Vic Fedeli says it’s ‘time to move on’ from Patrick Brown debacle
Eager to leave behind the Patrick Brown debacle, interim Progressive Conservative leader Vic Fedeli says “it’s time to move on.”
February 21, 2018
“The last 10 days have been unprecedented in Ontario’s politics,” Fedeli told reporters Tuesday at Queen’s Park, noting the controversies surrounding Brown have made for “a difficult time for our party.”
“But we are now ready to turn the page,” he said.
“Today, it’s morning in the PC Party.”
Indeed, his comments came the morning after Brown ended his comeback bid to return as Tory leader a month after resigning in scandal.
On Monday, the ex-chief announced his withdrawal from the leadership contest against former MPP Christine Elliott, one-time Toronto councillor Doug Ford, rookie PC candidate Caroline Mulroney and social conservative activist Tanya Granic Allen.
February 6, 2015
“I simply cannot run a provincial party leadership campaign . . . , while, at the same time, continuing my fight to prove that the allegations are lies,” Brown wrote in a four-page letter to the party, referring to a CTV News report about two women alleging sexual impropriety against him.
Since Brown stepped down as leader on Jan. 25, hours after CTV News’s story aired, the Tories have been in turmoil.
Fedeli has been the steady hand at the tiller, dispatching allies of the discredited former leader, clamping down on spending, and generally cleaning up what he called “rot.”
On Tuesday, he emphasized he had no second thoughts about removing Brown from the PC caucus; if and when the ex-leader returns to Legislature, he will sit as an Independent MPP in a remote corner of the chamber.
“Our party is bigger than any one person,” Fedeli said firmly.
“We are now ready to move on from focusing on any one individual, and to focus on the task at hand.
“And that task is defeating Kathleen Wynne,” he said. (Source: Toronto Star)