Patrick Brown

Thursday November 15, 2018

November 15, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 15, 2018

Patrick Brown cites sexual misconduct allegation against Ontario finance minister in new book

Former Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown comes out swinging in a new tell-all memoir, claiming the province’s current finance minister, Vic Fedeli, has also been the subject of a sexual misconduct allegation.

July 28, 2018

Brown’s new book also contains allegations that his former party spied on him as far back as 2015.

Entitled Takedown: The Attempted Political Assassination of Patrick Brown, the book follows Brown’s rise in politics, starting with his nine-year-old self writing a letter to then-prime minister Brian Mulroney and ending with reflections on his life after his abrupt resignation as Progressive-Conservative leader earlier this year, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” Brown told CBC News in sit-down interview, describing the night he was forced to resign.

“It’s like being run over by a truck. You can never be prepared for that.”

Brown, who from the scandal and was elected mayor of the City of Brampton in October, takes aim in the book at a number of PC caucus members and former staffers, and claims he was stabbed in the back by those in his inner circle.

Patrick Brown Retrospective

Brown is in the midst of an $8-million defamation lawsuit against CTV News for publishing the original story detailing the allegations against him, which he has always denied. CTV has filed a statement of defence. The case has not yet been heard in court.

In the years prior to Brown’s resignation, there were questions within the PCs about his ability to lead them to an election victory in 2018.

In the book, Brown frequently describes himself as a “red conservative.” He writes that he felt disliked by the party for his more progressive stance on issues such as gay marriage, climate change and the carbon tax.

At one point in the book, Brown offers advice to the new premier.

“I would say to Ford that the social conservatives are dinosaurs who are becoming less and less relevant every single day,” Brown writes.  (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday July 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 28, 2018

Doug Ford defends unilateral moves to slash Toronto council, axe regional chair elections

There’s a new sheriff in town.

November 20, 2013

Brandishing his political clout, recently elected Premier Doug Ford is unilaterally slashing the number of councillors at Toronto city hall and cancelling democratic elections for regional chairs in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka.

Ford’s disruption of civic elections on Friday triggered an eruption in municipal politics across the GTHA. In one surprise development, Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto’s outspoken former chief planner, entered the city’s mayoral race and will take on John Tory.

Tory, for his part, is calling for a referendum on the size of Toronto’s city council.

from 47 members to 25 and is dealing a body blow to a political enemy, Patrick Brown, his predecessor as Progressive Conservative leader, who was a front-runner for the Peel post.

Those hopes dashed, Brown immediately registered to run for mayor of Brampton against Linda Jeffrey.

But Ford, who never discussed his plans during the June 7 election campaign, signalled that he is more powerful than any municipal leader and suggested civic governments could effectively be run from Queen’s Park.

June 22, 2018

“We’re going to get things done. We’re going to run city hall a lot more efficiently than before,” the premier told reporters 12 hours after the Star revealed his sweeping changes.

“No one has ever said to me: ‘Doug, we need more politicians,’ ” said Ford.

“In fact, it’s the opposite. People tell me that we have too many politicians making it harder to get things done, making it harder to get things built, making it harder to deal with the real problems we face,” he said.

Ford, a one-term Toronto councillor while his late brother, Rob Ford, was mayor from 2010 to 2014, said he was fed up with the “hours and hours of endless debate . . . all of it taking place on the taxpayer’s dime.”

“It’s clear that the size of government is just too large.”

City wards will mirror provincial and federal riding boundaries if the legislation, which will be tabled Monday, is passed. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Wednesday February 28, 2018

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) 

 

Wednesday February 21, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 21, 2018

Patrick Brown’s PC leadership bid could lead to ‘political fratricide,’ experts say

January 26, 2018

Patrick Brown’s entry into the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race could lead to ruthless infighting, leaving the party at a disadvantage, experts say.

“This is a time when the party should be taking all its resources and throwing them at Kathleen Wynne,” Jim Warren, a political strategist who has worked with the Ontario Liberals, said this week.

“Instead, they’ve got the guns pointed at each other and are about to have a ‘shootout at the OK Corral.’ You will see this real insider fighting — political fratricide, if you will — of the leaders turning on each other.”  

January 30, 2018

Brown entered the race on Friday, just weeks after he resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct made by two women and first reported by CTV.

The other four leadership candidates, preparing for opponents with roughly similar political advantages, will now have to revise their game plan to focus on Brown. The former leader already has a base of support and extensive political experience.

“He’s been the leader for the last two years. He has sold a lot of the memberships to the members now. Are they PC members or Patrick Brown members?” Warren said.

Patrick Brown Retrospective

Either way, Brown’s entry into the leadership race is a gift to the Ontario Liberals, according to Jaime Watt, executive chair of the public relations company Navigator and a long-time Conservative strategist.

“I think it harms all the candidates at an important time in Ontario’s history,” Watt said.

“If I were (Kathleen Wynne) I’d be running to the convenience store to buy a lottery ticket.” (Source: CBC News) 

 

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Saturday January 27, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 27, 2018

Brown’s loss may be a blessing in disguise for PCs

Suddenly, an Ontario election that looked wildly unpredictable appears utterly confounding.

June 24, 2017

The only certainty is that Patrick Brown’s dramatic decapitation as the Progressive Conservative candidate for premier is destined for the history books. No one, however, can foretell the province’s political future.

Never mind the partisans and pollsters who confidently predicted a PC rout of a forlorn Liberal government. No one truly knew how Premier Kathleen Wynne would fare against the untested Brown or the NDP’s Andrea Horwath on the campaign trail, nor how voters would respond.

We know even less today. Tempting as it is to write off the Tories as leaderless, they are hardly rudderless — and may even enjoy a renaissance.

June 23, 2016

At their moment of maximum disarray, a dislikable leader has been dispatched. If they can improve on their last disastrous choice — pollsters were already noting Brown’s creeping negative ratings, and the more than 44 per cent of Ontarians who had no opinion of him — the Tories may yet surprise people.

Put another way, the best thing Wynne and Horwath had going for them was Brown. Unlikeable, unknowable, unimpressive as a politician and most especially as an aspiring premier.

But not to be underestimated. Brown surprised his rivals in the 2015 party leadership race by massively outhustling and organizing them, signing up tens of thousands of instant Tories by reaching out to ethnic communities. As leader, he picked up the pace by setting remarkable new fundraising records.

Yet organizational talent does not translate into political vision. Brown was not only bereft of charisma, he was utterly lacking in presence when he walked into a room.

The Tories can do better — and better late than never. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

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