安省进步保守党领导人竞选: Doug Ford获胜

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今年省大选，安省进步保守党的出头之日在女子身上。理由不说了，这里省略若干字。

也就这两个人了，不过这两个人都没有宣布是否参加党领竞选。

保守党人若有足够智慧的话，他们应该选Christine Elliott为党领。

 

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[uglyducking]

浏览附件734326

这样不好搞迷途哈

 

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这样不好搞迷途哈

二选一:

 

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[9981]

村长你不相信保守党有正经男人？

 

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村长你不相信保守党有正经男人？

我根本就不是基于你这个想法说滴话。

BTW，你看看上面那些declined的人都是谁。

 

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@2018

您的最爱都不参加竞选党魁啦。

 

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Your mom's basement is a rather inauspicious venue to announce your ambition to become premier of Ontario, but anybody who underestimates Doug Ford's chances to win the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership does so at their peril.

Ford declared his candidacy on Monday to lead a party in deep turmoil following the resignation of leader Patrick Brown over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Ford is quickly trying to position himself as the populist choice in the race, the outsider, railing against the elites.

"Folks, make no mistake about it," he said in his short statement from the basement of his mother's Etobicoke house. "The elites of this party, the ones who have shut out the grassroots, do not want me in this race. But I'm here to give a voice to the hard-working taxpayers of this province, people who have been ignored for far too long."

Ford's message might just resonate with a good chunk of the PC membership. And don't forget Ford's message already has proven popular with no small number of people in Toronto.

When he stepped into the shoes of his better-known brother Rob Ford to run for mayor in 2014, he came second but won 20 of the city's 44 wards. He trounced John Tory in Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, the key parts of Toronto that the PCs must swing their way to form a majority provincial government. It`s not a stretch to think he could replicate that success in the 905, the crucial battleground of Ontario politics, and of course in traditional Tory strongholds too.

Some political observers are already writing off Ford's candidacy.

But here are three key reasons why Ford's run can't be dismissed as irrelevant:

1. Short time frame
Usually a leadership race is all about who works the hardest to sign up the greatest number of new members. But the PC membership is already at a record high 200,000, and the race will last only a few weeks. It means the winner will likely be the person who proves most popular with that existing membership base.

2. New fundraising limits
The leadership race must abide by Ontario's new, much stricter, rules on political fundraising. Corporations and unions cannot donate and no person can give more than $1,200 to any leadership candidate. It reduces the potential for huge disparities in fundraising between candidates. In particular, this reins in what would have been one of Caroline Mulroney's huge advantages: the fundraising juggernaut of her father, former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Caroline Mulroney, daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, is the Ontario PC candidate for York-Simcoe and is being touted as a possible party leadership contender. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

3. Room on the right
There has been much grumbling among ideological conservatives who felt that Patrick Brown took the party too far to the centre. None of the other names being touted as possible candidates seem likely to push the party to a more hard-line conservative stance, with the possible exception of Monte McNaughton. If McNaughton declines to run, Ford could position himself to win over both the populist side of the PC membership and the Tories who considered Brown to be Liberal-lite.

None of this is to say Ford will win. But all his opponents know that he will be a factor, if he qualifies to run. My sources are telling me the party will insist on a thorough vetting process for the leadership candidates, in the wake of the Brown allegations. Ford will have to open himself and his past up to some tough scrutiny from the party he wants to lead.

There's also talk the party committee organizing the leadership race is considering a rule that all candidates must formally support the PC platform that's already been developed. Would Doug Ford actually commit to a carbon tax? When the platform was unveiled in November, Ford gave it a general thumbs up to reporters, but it is not clear if he embraces it wholly.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative platform for the 2018 election features former party leader Patrick Brown prominently on its cover. Party officials insist that the policies in the platform still stand, despite Brown's resignation. (Mike Crawley/CBC)

Ford`s move to throw his hat in the ring truly means the race is on. His declaration effectively snuffs out any chance party officials will reverse the decision to hold a leadership contest, rumours of which were spreading in PC circles.

Interim leader Vic Fedeli has also indicated he wants the permanent job. He will bring a significant amount of support from his caucus mates, but they only represent one-fifth of the ridings in the province, and the party's voting system gives equal weight to all 124 ridings.

Sources indicate that Caroline Mulroney has a campaign team at the ready. While she is an experienced lawyer and investment banker, the knock against her will be that she has never held elected office. The same critique applies to Rod Phillips, the former CEO of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. Sources say Phillips is considering a run, with backing from longtime PC bigwig Paul Godfrey.

Others who have not ruled out a run include former deputy PC leader Christine Elliott and Durham MP Erin O'Toole. The party executive is scheduled to decide the race rules on Wednesday.

"Our party cannot go without a tested leader in this crucial time," Ford said Monday, revealing his tactics for challenging some of his potential opponents. "Right now, the party needs strong leadership, someone who's ready to clean up the mess and lead us into the June election."

Still reeling from Brown's abrupt departure, the PC party is rudderless. The campaign machinery that ought to be operating full-tilt is sitting idle. The staff who were running the show are now focused on allying themselves with would-be leadership contenders. All the energy that ought to be focused solely on taking down Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals is being spent on internal battles.

It'll be nearly two months before the PCs have someone in place to make the run for premier. If that person ends up being Doug Ford, remember that it all began in his mom's basement.

 

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Caroline Mulroney speaks after being named as the Ontario PC nominee for the York-Simcoe riding in September 2017.Handout/Mulroney Campaign via CP

Maybe they should offer free steak knives with the job.

Why does no-one, with the exception of Doug Ford, want to be leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives?

Interim leader Vic Fedeli and new finance critic Lisa MacLeod were the latest potential candidates to rule themselves out Tuesday.

It’s true the party has done a fair imitation of the crack suicide squad from Monty Python’s Life of Brian in recent days.

But, remarkably, it is still well-placed to win the Ontario general election in June. The only poll conducted since Patrick Brown was ousted last week suggests PC support is steady, despite the allegations against its former leader and president. The Forum poll, which gives the PCs a 15 point lead over Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals, even suggests one in five voters may be more inclined to back the PCs in June.
But the reluctance to commit by those most familiar with the party speaks volumes about the mess it is in.

The logistical challenge of holding a leadership contest before the end of March and then, almost immediately, launching an election campaign for a June 7 vote are immense.

For example, the Tories can’t create an ad campaign until they know who the new leader is. But if they wait until the end of March to book media space, there will no inventory and the cost will be extortionate.

None of this is likely to matter to Ford, who may be using the provincial leadership race as a dry run for another Toronto mayoral tilt against John Tory.

But it should weigh heavily on other potential candidates like rookies Caroline Mulroney and Rod Phillips.

Given the precariousness of the PC position, the party’s membership would be smart to take a long, hard look at Mulroney, if she runs.

It’s true that there are more than two families in this country capable of providing political leadership. And she probably doesn’t even know herself if she has the skills and knowledge, nerves and brains to be a good leader.

But the early signs are good. At 43, with four young children and a successful career as a lawyer, she has life experience. She garnered good reviews when she hosted the federal Conservative leadership convention last spring, even downplaying the prospect of a career in politics. “Who would want to run for their dad’s old job?” she quipped.

Most important from the party’s point of view, she looks like the candidate best placed to beat Wynne.

To do that the provincial Tories must stay united, they need to have moderate policies that appeal beyond their core voting group and they need to be inclusive, appealing to visible minorities and women.

A Progressive Conservative majority will require married women with children to vote for them in their droves.

So far, former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford is the only person who has expressed an interest in running for the Ontario PCs. Frank Gunn/CP

A glance at the already released platform suggests everything the party has done thus far has been tailored to appealing to this demographic. It contains a child care refund, new childcare spaces, a caregiver tax credit, reduced hydro bills and a middle class tax cut – all paid for with the proceeds of a carbon tax.

Polls suggest women voters were already warming to the idea of a PC government – typically one in three women said they intended to vote Conservative, versus one in five for the Liberals.

But Mulroney would broaden that appeal further still.

Ford has already indicated that party unity is not his top priority. “I can’t watch the party I love fall into the hands of the elites,” he said. “The elites have shut the door on the grassroots, the foundation of our party.”

It would be no surprise if he campaigns on ditching the carbon tax commitment – which would probably be popular with much of the PC base. But if he did, the whole platform would be unfunded and collapse in on itself.

Ford did remarkably well in 2014, winning 20 of the city’s 44 wards. His folksy style appeals to the kind of folks who think the swamp should be drained. Launching his campaign from his mom’s basement was genius.

But he’s a bull who travels with his own china shop and the PCs don’t have time to pick up the pieces.

They spent six months customizing a platform to appeal to the median voter. Many conservatives, including Ford, will think it’s a sell-out.

In truth, much of it reads like a blatant electoral bribe – hello, $500 winter tire tax credit.

But the polls suggest many Ontarians have reached the conclusion that the Liberals are too old, too tired and too expensive.

Mulroney would present a modern, moderate alternative.

 

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In less than a week, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives have gone from a credible alternative government to a second-rate circus with a surplus of clowns.

After the sudden and shocking departure of leader Patrick Brown, the PCs had one credible path to victory. That was backing respected veteran MPP Vic Fedeli, who was caucus’s choice to carry the party through the election. Fedeli had vowed to stick with the platform the party had already released.

Instead, the party executive decided that a leadership race would be the thing, even though it would only give the new leader two months to campaign before an election.

For a while, it looked as if the executive might reconsider its ill-advised position, but all that came crashing down Tuesday, when Fedeli said he wasn’t going to continue as leader and preferred to spend his time cleaning out the apparently extensive internal rot in the party.

Last week, the PC party had a leader, a plan and a campaign team. Now, it has a lame-duck temporary leader, no plan, no functioning campaign team and only controversial former Toronto councillor Doug Ford as a declared candidate for the leadership.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to get a whole lot better. Some people are excited about the prospect of Caroline Mulroney or Rod Phillips, a former Postmedia executive, entering the race. Problem is, Mulroney has zero political experience and taking on the leadership so close to an election would be a monumental task even for a political veteran. Phillips, a former business guy, has never run for office either. Plus, many people have no idea who he is. Big names like John Tory, John Baird and Lisa Raitt have already said no thanks. Smart move.

Now the PCs will spend the next two months tearing each other apart in a hasty version of a leadership race. All their energy and time will be devoted to debating each other, not the Liberals. Don’t count on positive media coverage for the event. With Ford in the race, it will be a brawl.

Candidates will no doubt have their own platform ideas. Say goodbye to the PC plan for a tax cut, a better child care program and major money for mental health. Some PCs don’t like the proposed carbon tax, but the federal Liberals have mandated that. The PC platform is fully costed and politically astute. Whatever replaces it will be sketchy at best, because there simply won’t be time to do better.

It can’t be stressed enough that halting the party’s campaign for nearly half the remaining time until election is a suicidal move. We have known the provincial election date for a long time, but for the PCs, it will be a snap election.

It’s almost Super Bowl time, so let’s use a football analogy. The course the PCs are on amounts to telling the other team to start the game while the PC team meets with the cheerleaders to discuss who should be quarterback and what plays should be used.

The root of the PC problem goes back to a long-running battle over who’s really in charge, the caucus and leader or the volunteer executive. The caucus took the right approach, although Fedeli’s failure to follow through must be extremely disappointing for them.

When PCs pick over the bones after their likely election loss, they can start with the reckless actions of their executive, and particularly now-former president Rick Dykstra. The push for a leadership vote was led by Dykstra, a Patrick Brown bro who is now facing sexual misconduct allegations of his own. Is this the person who should have decided the future of the PC party?

Maybe the PCs will pull this one off somehow, but they have given themselves every conceivable disadvantage. In doing so, they have let down voters who are desperate for change.

 

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@明的凡

看看你曾经大赞的200,000党员是怎么回事情。

The interim leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservatives is launching an investigation into the legitimacy of the tens of thousands of new party memberships signed up during his predecessor's 2.5-year reign.

Vic Fedeli announced on Tuesday that he is bowing out of the leadership race to replace Patrick Brown. After five days on the job as interim leader following Mr. Brown's sudden resignation, Mr. Fedeli said he needs to devote all of his time to addressing a party structure that is in "much worse shape" than he realized. He has ordered a probe into the names and addresses of all 200,000 party members.

"I wouldn't have done that if I was completely satisfied," Mr. Fedeli told reporters at a news conference. "There is an overarching issue about these memberships that has caused me to ask for a complete analysis … right down to the IP addresses. I plan to root out the rot."

Mr. Fedeli's news about problems not just with possibly erroneous membership rolls but also the information-technology systems heightened the crisis gripping Ontario's Official Opposition and came a day before the party executive prepares to finalize rules for an upcoming leadership race.

Hartley Lefton, a Toronto lawyer and chair of the committee in charge of drafting the rules, said the party executive plans to meet on Wednesday, at which time the rules could be ratified. Once the executive approves them, the leadership race will officially begin. But party insiders said Mr. Fedeli's comments have cast fresh doubt on how the party could get ready for a leadership contest just four months before the provincial election. Leadership contenders would have 30 days to sign up new members. But the party needs to establish how many members it has before a leadership race begins.

Tory MPPs named Mr. Fedeli interim leader last Friday, after Mr. Brown stepped down following a CTV News report alleging sexual misconduct involving two young women. Mr. Brown has denied the allegations and remains a member of caucus. Under his leadership, party membership ranks swelled from 10,000 to 200,000, setting a new record. While the party has been known for signing up "instant Tories" at both the federal and provincial levels for decades, party insiders said Mr. Brown took the practice of signing up new members to a whole new level after he was elected leader in May, 2015.

During that leadership race, Mr. Brown's campaign said it signed more than 40,000 new members, helping to increase PC membership from 10,000 after the 2014 election to 76,000.

Would-be nominees for the Progressive Conservatives and local party officials in as many as 14 ridings across Ontario have complained about voter fraud and broken rules at nominations. Allegations of ballot-stuffing were widespread during an ugly nomination race in the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, currently held by Liberal Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli.

The then-PC riding president, Emma McLennan, flagged concerns with the party executive last year about a May vote, questioning the legitimacy of 73 members listed as living at 25 Woodridge Cres., an apartment building, in spite of the fact that the names did not appear on the building's tenant directory. She also noted that 58 people had phone numbers with Toronto area codes. Ms. McLennan and a majority of the association executive resigned in protest in June.

One number on the riding association membership list belongs to Aval Arora in Toronto. When The Globe and Mail called the number on Tuesday, Ms. Arora said she's had that phone number for several years and has no connection to Ottawa or the Ontario PC Party.

Similarly, Balveer Singh of Toronto said he had no idea why his number appears on the membership list of a political riding association in Ottawa. "It's the first time I've heard of this," he said.

Mr. Fedeli said fixing problems with the party's systems will be a massive undertaking. "We have learned our party is in much worse shape than we knew," he said.

The party has been rocked by the departures of its two top officials in the run-up to the June 7 election. In addition to Mr. Brown, Rick Dykstra announced on Twitter on Sunday night that he was stepping "aside" as party president shortly before Maclean's published allegations that he sexually assaulted a young Conservative staffer in 2014 when he was a federal MP.

Mr. Dykstra did not address the allegations in his Twitter post, nor has he responded to requests for comment. His lawyers, Chris Murphy and John Phillips, said in a statement that Mr. Dykstra "categorically denies" the allegations reported by Maclean's.

However, Mr. Dykstra is staying on as a member of the executive, a decision made by interim party president Jag Badwal.

Mr. Fedeli called on Mr. Dykstra to "do the right thing" and step down from the executive. However, under the party's constitution, the leader – or interim leader – has no power to appoint or remove someone from the party executive. Mr. Dykstra led the charge to hold a leadership race before voters go to the polls on June 7, according to party insiders.

The executive overruled Tory MPPs who recommended to the executive that Mr. Fedeli take the party into the coming election as leader and wait until after the election to choose a permanent successor to Mr. Brown.

Richard Ciano, who served as party president prior to Mr. Dykstra, was informed by Mr. Badwal just before midnight on Monday that he was no longer on the executive, according to a party insider. In a tight vote on the question of when to hold a leadership race, Mr. Ciano was strongly in favour of waiting until after the election, according to insiders.

In an e-mail response, Mr. Badwal said the position of past president will be left vacant "until we complete the launch of the leadership process."

 

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Ontario PCs to endorse open leadership campaign Wednesday: Insiders
Published:January 30, 2018
Updated:January 30, 2018 8:17 PM EST

From left: Caroline Muroney, Rod Phillips and Doug Ford

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party, staggered by sexual impropriety allegations and the resignation of its leader and president, expects Wednesday to address its problematic leadership vacuum, senior insiders told the Toronto Sun.

The party executive intends, sources said, to support an open leadership campaign that could come as early as March 10 or 11, and no later than March 24, when rank-and-file conservatives will elect a new leader to replace Patrick Brown.

Or viewed another way, those within the party who had been lobbying to forgo a grassroots vote in favor of an appointed leader couldn’t muster the support to make that happen.

Which is the best news the Tories have had in more than a week.

Conservatives are still reeling from allegations against Brown and former party president Rick Dykstra and senior party leaders are preparing to stage a leadership race just months before the June 7 vote.

“The executive voted last week to hold a leadership contest,” Marc Marzotto, a vice-president and Membership Committee Chair of the Ontario PC Party, told the Sun.

“Our vote (Wednesday) will revolve around rules for it,” Marzotto said.

Those rules for a shortened leadership contest are still being finalized but are expected to include a high, six-figure entry fee and permit “outsiders,” meaning those not currently running as candidates, to enter.

Justin Van Dette, an PC executive member regional vice-president for Toronto, also told the Sun he’ll support a grassroots vote.

“We’ve already made our decision that we’re going to go ahead with the vote,” Van Dette said. “We want to include the grassroots moving forward the way we are to be fast and while also at the same time, making sure we’re very efficient and bringing in experienced people who have done these campaigns before.”

With a shortened leadership campaign apparently set, three candidates appear to have emerged as frontrunners to replace Brown:

Caroline Mulroney, a lawyer, investment fund vice-president, daughter of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and PC candidate for York-Simcoe, is expected to announce her intention to run Thursday or Friday;

Former Toronto councillor and mayoral candidate Doug Ford, who has already declared his intention to run, and;

Rod Phillips, former Postmedia chair, president and CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and Shepell.fgi and a PC candidate for Ajax, is also expected to announce his intentions in the coming days.

Vic Fedeli, who was appointed interim leader following Brown’s resignation, announced Tuesday he won’t run for leader, but instead intends to focus on addressing problems within the party.

Fedeli told reporters he plans to focus on “any rot” within the party structure, and cited concerns over the state of the party’s 200,000-plus membership list following a “ransomware attack” last fall.

“It has been a chaotic time for our party,” Fedeli said. “Quite frankly, a steady hand is needed at our helm for our party today.”

Sources told the Sun the party’s Ontario PC fund, which controls the pursestrings for the June 7 election campaign, has been temporarily frozen and efforts may be underway to audit the membership before a vote.

Meanwhile, other potential leadership candidates, including MPPs Monte McNaughton and Lisa McLeod, have also withdrawn their names from consideration, in McLeod’s case to support Fedeli and take on a new role as party finance critic.

“I look forward to holding the Wynne government to account on these important matters,” she said in a statement.

“Despite the tumultuous events of the last week, I firmly believe our party has and will come away stronger and more focused on defeating Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario Liberals, so that we can begin the work of repairing our Province and rebuilding our economy.”

The chaos of the past few weeks is hardly behind Ontario’s conservatives, but the common sense missing over the past several days has finally resurfaced.

http://torontosun.com/news/provinci...e-open-leadership-campaign-wednesday-insiders

 

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Even interim Ontario PC leader Vic Fedeli appears befuddled by what is going on with his party. Nevertheless, he vows to "root out the rot.”Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Entire books could be written about the past week in the Ontario PC Party.

Sexual misconduct allegations have brought down its leader, Patrick Brown, and its president, Rick Dykstra. An interim leader, Vic Fedeli, was elected by caucus, and then an open battle was waged over whether to hold a new leadership race. A purge was carried out of staff members connected to Brown.

Senior party members have made public allegations of fraud and corruption within the party. On Tuesday, Fedeli suddenly announced he wouldn’t seek the permanent leadership, and would instead “root out the rot” in the party.

All of this comes four months before the scheduled start of an election campaign.

With the help of party sources speaking on background, here is what we know and don’t know about the astonishing state of affairs within the Ontario PCs.

Will there be a leadership race?

Yes. That’s about all that can be said for now, as all of the rules are still being debated.

The party’s executive has instructed that the race conclude by March 24 at the latest. Decisions still need to be made on the entrance fee (though it will likely be set high), the deadline to sign up new members, the campaign spending limit, and how the vote itself will take place (likely either online or through mail-in ballot).

Who makes the rules for the race?

Draft rules are being considered by a nine-person Leadership Organizing Election Committee, which was established on Friday and is chaired by Hartley Lefton, a partner at Dentons law firm who spent years serving as the party’s outside general counsel.

But ultimately it is the 25-person party executive that sets the rules. It will receive the committee’s recommendations on Wednesday, but could take a few days to decide. The acting president of the executive is Jag Badwal, who took over that position when Dykstra resigned on Sunday.

It is an open question whether Dykstra, a close friend of Brown, is still a voting member of the board. Past presidents have a position, but in normal circumstances it is the person who was president in the last term, not someone who suddenly resigned. The PC Party website has simply removed that position from the list of executives until the situation is sorted out.

Why does everything seem like total chaos?

There are warring factions within the party. When Brown won the leadership in May 2015, he came in as an outsider and spent two and a half years consolidating control and installing allies in key roles, including staffers, party executives, campaign organizers and nominated candidates.

With Fedeli in place, the party’s pre-Brown establishment is reasserting itself, but it doesn’t have full control. Some of Brown’s allies have been fired, while others remain in various elected and non-elected positions. Brown’s well-respected chief of staff, Alykhan Velshi, had resigned but was brought back by Fedeli.

More changes are likely to come. Fedeli’s statement on Tuesday that he wouldn’t seek the permanent leadership gives him credibility to fully investigate the party’s operations. “I plan to root out the rot,” he said. “It’s going to expose things, I’m sure.”

Party power brokers are also manoeuvring to get their preferred candidate favourable conditions in the leadership race.

Along with the power struggle, there is genuine disagreement over how to properly run a leadership race on such a short timeframe. The provincial election is scheduled for June 7.

What are the big questions right now?

The most urgent question is around the membership list. On Jan. 13, the party had sent out a news release saying it had 200,224 members, but there are strong doubts within the party that this is even close to accurate. (There were 76,000 members after the 2015 leadership race.) Fedeli has promised a deep investigation, including “a technical analysis, right down into the IP addresses where these came from.”

During a leadership campaign, candidates sign up new members and submit their lists to the party. The party then verifies the memberships and provides each campaign with one consolidated list ahead of voting. You cannot run an accurate leadership contest without an accurate membership list.

There is another burning problem: over the past year, the party has had a number of extremely controversial nomination contests where it was alleged Brown’s people were fixing the vote to ensure their own candidate would win. One, in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, is the subject of a criminal investigation. It is possible the party’s investigation of its membership list will lead to nominated candidates being disqualified.

“In the five days I have been there, I will admit to you, our party structure is in much worse shape than we knew,” Fedeli said Tuesday. “You’ve all heard there are concerns involving our internal reporting, membership lists and the security of our information technology systems.”

And finally, of course, there is the question of who will run. The only declared candidate so far is Doug Ford. Other rumoured candidates will likely wait until the rules are set before declaring. Of the four people who challenged Brown in the 2015 race, three have said they will not enter this one: Fedeli, Lisa MacLeod and Monte McNaughton.

The fourth candidate, and Brown’s only rival by the end, was Christine Elliott. She resigned as an MPP in August 2015, and was later appointed by Premier Kathleen Wynne as the province’s ombudsman for hospital patients. Elliott has so far remained quiet about her intentions.

 

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https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/fedeli...stead-of-joining-pc-leadership-race-1.3781674

Fedeli to 'root out the rot' instead of joining PC leadership race
Vic Fedeli won't seek Ont. PC party leadership
The interim leader of the Ontario PC Party has announced he will no longer run for permanent leadership.

Shawn Jeffords and Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, January 30, 2018 11:53AM EST
Last Updated Tuesday, January 30, 2018 5:34PM EST

The newly appointed interim leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservatives vowed Tuesday to clean up the party, "root out the rot" and ensure a fair leadership contest following the resignation of top officials amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Vic Fedeli, who was appointed to his post last week following former party leader Patrick Brown's sudden resignation, said he needed to focus on internal issues ahead of a spring election and would not be making a bid to permanently helm the Tories, as initially planned.

"There are things to fix," he said. "Fixing this, and it needs fixing, will be a massive undertaking. But it is absolutely essential and absolutely doable if we're to win the next election."

The party has been in turmoil since last week when Brown resigned after vehemently denying sexual misconduct allegations reported by CTV News. The Tories also had to deal with the party's president leaving his post on Sunday amid a separate allegation of sexual assault reported by Maclean's magazine.

In the coming weeks, the party will be taking a hard look at its internal processes, including the way it manages its members.

Brown boasted in October of growing the party's base to 127,000 members from about 10,000 following the Tories' 2014 election loss. The number has since grown to 200,000.

"Frankly, I think I opened the party up to tens of thousands more who simply want a reasonable, thoughtful...modern, inclusive PC party," he told The Canadian Press in an interview late last year.

Questions have been raised, however, about those figures, which Fedeli said will be scrutinized through an analysis of the party's membership rolls, including the names, addresses and the computer IP addresses used by members to register.

"There is an overarching issue of these memberships that have caused me to ask for a complete analysis, a technical analysis, right down into the IP addresses where these came from ... It's going to expose things, I'm sure," he said.

The interim leader also ordered an overhaul of the party's membership management system, which was hacked in early November.

Fedeli, saying the party had been through a "chaotic time" in recent days, also vowed to tackle internal sniping.

"Our party has infighting already ... We can't have this," he said. "We need to focus on the one true opponent."

Party insiders said the infighting can be attributed, in part, to potential leadership candidates and their advisors jockeying for early position and favourable conditions ahead of the upcoming contest, which will be held by the end of March.

The party has been also been dogged by controversial nomination battles in ridings across the province, including allegations of vote-stuffing in races near Hamilton and Ottawa. In the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas police are currently investigating the PC nomination. The party eventually hired auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers to oversee their nominations contests after complaints about the votes began to emerge.

Amid the internal clean-up that will take place, the party is also currently working on establishing rules that will govern its leadership race, which was announced by the party executive on Friday after a caucus recommendation to have Fedeli stay at the helm through the spring election.

"Would I have loved this job, of course," Fedeli said. "But, but, there is a bigger role for me today. This needs to be fixed and if I'm off spending two months on a campaign it's not going to get fixed."

Fedeli's announcement means there is currently only one candidate officially in the running -- Toronto politician Doug Ford, brother of the city's late former mayor Rob Ford.

Other potential candidates include Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, former Postmedia executive Rod Phillips and PC energy critic Todd Smith who told a local media outlet in Eastern Ontario Tuesday he is considering a bid for the leadership.

Two Tory legislators considered potential candidates -- Monte McNaugton and Lisa MacLeod -- said Tuesday they would not seek the top job.

Kevin Gaudet, a long time party member and organizer of the PC policy convention last fall, said he could understand why Fedeli has opted to focus on re-building the party.

"There's a reason why, in almost every instance that I can think of … in a leadership race, an interim leader's not allowed to run," he said. "In this instance, there are a lot of things to do and he's busy and it's a contracted period of time."

Gaudet said Brown's sudden resignation, as well as the departure of former party president Rick Dykstra, has created a slew of challenges for Fedeli and the party.

"There's factions, there's parties, there's interests, there's policy and there's a ticking clock," he said. "I'm not surprised by that and I have every confidence that we've got smart and capable people with integrity involved in the process to take us forward."