安省进步保守党领导人竞选: Doug Ford获胜

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TORONTO – Ontario Progressive Conservatives who want to help choose the party’s next leader will have to prove their identity before they can participate in the vote.

The party says it is putting in place a two-step verification system to ensure the transparency of the online ballot, which is scheduled for early March.

It says members will receive a unique verification number in the mail, which will direct them online to verify the information on their record. They will then have to send in a photo or scan of an approved identification document before being allowed to vote.

The announcement comes as the party deals with the discovery of a significant discrepancy in its membership numbers.

An email recently sent to the Tory caucus and obtained by The Canadian Press showed that the party has roughly 67,000 fewer members than the 200,000 claimed by former leader Patrick Brown.

The party is holding a leadership race to replace Brown, who stepped down abruptly in late January amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Brown denies the allegations, which were made by two women who spoke to CTV News and have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press.

Former Tory legislator Christine Elliott, who came in second to Brown in the last leadership race, is among those competing to take the helm of the party.

Caroline Mulroney, a Toronto lawyer and the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, is also in the running, as is former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, brother of late mayor Rob Ford.

The first leadership debate will be held in Toronto on Feb. 15, a day before the deadline for candidates and new party members to register. A second debate will be held at a later date.

The vote is set to take place between March 2 and 8, with the results announced on March 10. The Progressive Conservatives say independent third parties will be responsible for processing votes and maintaining personal information.

 

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继续掐!

Clean-up 'corruption', allow new nominations, PC party members urge
Ballot stuffing, ineligible voters reported at Ottawa-West Nepean nomination
Julie Ireton · CBC News · Posted: Feb 08, 2018 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

Karma MacGregor and her supporters have been campaigning since she won a controversial nomination race in Ottawa-West Nepean in May 2017. That nomination is now one of a handful across Ontario that some party members want the new leadership to reopen. (Facebook)

Some long-time Ontario Progressive Conservatives are urging the party to reopen contentious nominations across the province — including the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean — and clean up what they see as corruption before the June election.

"We still have time. My goodness, we're going to run a leadership, we still have time to run a properly constituted riding nomination meeting," said retired Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton.

'Fraud' in Ottawa West-Nepean
LeBreton was witness to a nomination meeting she said was rife with irregularities in Ottawa West-Nepean on May 6, 2017.

Several Progressive Conservative party volunteers told CBC they saw evidence that evening of ballot stuffing and ineligible members being permitted to vote — and that party executives allowed it all to happen.

Marjory LeBreton, who retired from the Senate in 2015, is known as a loyal and partisan conservative. Yet she's spoken out publicly about her concerns with Ontario's Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown and the nomination of Karma MacGregor in Ottawa-West Nepean. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"It was clearly very fraudulent activity," said LeBreton. "At the time I called for the party to take a look at it and declare the meeting void."

Instead, then-leader Patrick Brown shut down any discussion of an appeal and appointed the candidates who'd been nominated in all the controversial nomination meetings across Ontario.

In Ottawa West-Nepean, the party executive resigneden masse.

The winning candidate, Karma MacGregor, is now readying her campaign for the June election. At the time of the nomination, her daughter, Tamara MacGregor, was Patrick Brown's deputy chief of staff.

Several CBC requests to speak to Karma MacGregor went unanswered.

Now that both Brown and former party president Rick Dykstra are gone, LeBreton and other long-time party members are urging those now in charge to take action.

Take back our PC Party
LeBreton and many others in Ottawa West-Nepean have hope in the party's interim leader, Vic Fedeli, who said last week he'd work to "root out any rot" in the party.

"I know people are saying, 'Why is Vic Fedeli doing this? It's going to give Liberals ammunition,'" said LeBreton. "No. It'll prove we're open, honest, prepared to look at ourselves [and] honestly fix these problems."

There have been contentious nominations in a number of Ontario ridings, including Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas and Scarborough Centre.

Jim Karahalios, a long-time PC party supporter and lawyer in Cambridge, Ont., was so disillusioned with the nomination process in Ontario last summer that he started a protest group called Take Back our PC Party.

Jim Karahalios, an Ontario lawyer, started a group called 'Take Back our PC Party' in the wake of several contentious PC party nominations — some of which he says showed 'evidence of irregularities and voter fraud.' (submitted)

He went up against both Brown and Dykstra, calling for an airing of party issues at a formal convention.

But the party executive didn't take kindly to Karahalios' outspoken views and slapped a lawsuit on him. It was later dismissed.

"The PC Party should not be going into an election with candidates where their legitimacy and how they were chosen is called into question," said Karahalios on Wednesday. "Because it will hamper our ability to put forward a strong showing in those ridings."

'Root out the rot'
While Karahalios notes Fedeli is doing a "heroic job", he really wants to know if the three party's three declared leadership candidates — Caroline Mulroney, Doug Ford and Christine Elliott — plan on reopening nominations in the ridings that were "most probably decided through illegitimate means."

"Root out the rot and drain the swamp," said Karahalios.

Ontario PC party interim leader Vic Fedeli says he wants to 'root out any rot' in the PC party before it heads into the June 7 election campaign. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

But a long-time Progressive Conservative insider said reopening nominations will not be easy.

"It's a very messy process to overturn anything," said the party activist, who would only discuss internal party matters freely on condition of anonymity. "They would be looking at opening something that is long gone."

The party insider said only the executive would have the authority to call for a new nomination vote.

CBC requested to speak to executives with the Ontario PC party, but no one consented to an interview.

Could campaign against PC candidates
If nominations are not reopened, some card-carrying party members say they'll actually campaign against Progressive Conservative candidates.

Carlos Naldinho, who has volunteered for the candidate in Ottawa West-Nepean riding for the past several elections, was so disillusioned by the nomination process he started a campaign called "I'm Out"

"The reason I'm a conservative is because, whatever we are, we're not corrupt. But when you start rigging nominations, and you start rigging leadership races, then you can't support a party like that any more," said Naldinho.

He's adding his voice to those urging the party's brass to hold new nomination contests.

"If they don't reverse those candidates, I'll have to work against those candidates in the election, even if I want the party to win," said Naldinho.

"If Karma [MacGregor] is the candidate, I will be campaigning against her. Same with some of the other candidates who got the nomination by cheating."

 

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此人步子迈大了一点儿。参加MPP竞选还可以。

Tanya Granic Allen, seen in this Sept. 2016 file photo, has announced her intention to run in Ontario's Progressive Conservative leadership race. Granic Allen is president of Parents as First Educators, which lobbies against Ontario's sex-ed curriculum. (Bernard Weil / Toronto Star file photo)

TORONTO—A fourth person has declared her intention to run for the leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party.

But Tanya Granic Allen acknowledged Thursday that she first needs at least 100 party members to sign her nomination papers and donors to help her raise the $100,000 entry fee to enter the race.

Granic Allen is president of Parents as First Educators, which lobbies against the sex-education curriculum in Ontario and is in favour of more parental control of education.

“We have to make sure that the protest of parents across this province isn’t falling upon deaf ears,” Granic Allen said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

There are three candidates in the race so far to replace former party leader Patrick Brown — former Tory legislator Christine Elliott, Toronto lawyer Caroline Mulroney and former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford.

Brown resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations levied by two women who spoke to CTV News. Brown has denied the allegations which have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press.

The first leadership debate will be held in Toronto on Feb. 15, a day before the deadline for candidates and new party members to register. A second debate will follow at a later date.

The vote is set to take place between March 2 and 8, with the results announced on March 10.

 

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Former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown says he's contemplating legal action to restore his reputation in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations, which he calls "absolute lies."

Brown, who had already strongly denied the allegations, gave his first interview since stepping down from his position last month to the Postmedia news agency.

In what the outlet calls an "emotional interview," Brown compares his experience of being accused of sexual misconduct to "getting hit by a truck."

• If Patrick Brown can clear his name, he can run for Ontario PCs: Elliott

• Patrick Brown resurfaces on social media, vowing 'truth will come out' over sexual misconduct allegations

He says the incidents alleged by two women in a CTV News report "didn't happen," and he suggests being forced to resign as leader just months before a provincial election was akin to "frontier justice."

Brown told Postmedia he's "strongly considering a legal recourse."

The former PC leader broke his silence earlier in the week with a brief message posted on Twitter, saying he was "immensely grateful" for the support he and his family received.

His sister, Stephanie Brown, has also denounced the allegations, which have not been verified by The Canadian Press, as a "political hit."

Brown stepped down in late January just hours after an emotional late-night news conference in which he vowed to fight the allegations.

A few days later he was asked to take a leave of absence from caucus and the party's interim leader, Vic Fedeli, said he would not sign Brown's nomination papers for the province's June 7 election if the allegations still stood at campaign time.

Support from PC candidates
After Brown's interview with Postmedia was published online, a number of PC candidates who won their nominations during Brown's tenure posted supportive messages to Twitter.

"What happened to you wasn't right," said April Jeffs, a PC candidate in Niagara Centre.

Goldie Ghamari, candidate in the riding of Carleton, said that Brown "was executed without a trial." As the PC caucus met in Toronto late last month to deal with the fallout from Brown's departure, Ghamari told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper that Tory MPP Rick Hillier tried to intimidate her out of running for office outside a party convention in 2016.

Ghamari said in a series of tweets on Friday that "it should be up to our justice system to decide" on the veracity of the allegations against Brown.

"I will stand by [Brown]. The truth is coming out," she said.

Thunder Bay candidate Derek Parks said that Brown "has done so much and involved so many in the PC Party of Ontario," adding that he's "encouraged" Brown decided to speak out publicly again.

Leadership race looms
Brown's resignation intensified a fractious internal dispute over the future of the party and forced the PC's to hastily plan a leadership race that is set to conclude on March 10.

So far, three high-profile candidates have entered the contest for the party's top job, including the politician who came second to Brown in the last leadership race.

Christine Elliott, a former Ontario legislator, launched her campaign last week, days after former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford announced his bid. Caroline Mulroney, a Toronto lawyer and the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, threw her hat in the ring last weekend.

At a conservative conference in Ottawa this weekend, Elliott said that if Brown can clear his name, he should be able to run for the party in the next election.

"I think it's important for Patrick to come forward to say his view of what happened," Elliott said during a question-and-answer session at the annual Manning networking conference.

Patrick Brown leaves a hastily called news conference in January where he addressed the allegations made against him. (CBC)
""I know he is trying to clear his name, if he is able to clear his name by the time the election comes forward then I would have no problem with him running as a candidate. But that has to happen before, in my opinion, he should be able to run."

All three leadership candidates spoke at the conference, but Elliott was the only one to be asked directly about Brown by the moderator, journalist Anthony Furey.

During his time in the spotlight, Ford revealed that he will pursue a seat in the Legislature even if he loses the leadership race.

He cited his performance in Toronto's 2014 mayoral election — he raked in about 34 per cent of the vote, finishing second after John Tory. That, he suggested, bodes well for his potential to turn Toronto's typically left-leaning voters.

"We need those seats."

He'll win them not just on the backs of Ford Nation, the nickname given to the passionate supporters of Doug and his late brother Rob.

It's thanks to them that Fords have represented a suburban Toronto riding for years, and it's because of them he'll run no matter what in 2018, he said.

But attracting NDP and Liberal voters are also key, he said, as he claimed that much of the PC Party base comes from the left.

"Don't count out hardworking union people as being fiscally conservative," he said.

 

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有意思....

 

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By Robert BenzieQueen's Park Bureau Chief
Mon., Feb. 12, 2018

Dumping Patrick Brown as leader has helped the Progressive Conservatives no matter who wins the party’s leadership, a new poll suggests.

In Campaign Research’s first public opinion survey since Brown resigned as leader almost three weeks ago, the firm found all three Tory contenders are more popular than Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne.

“When you’ve got the stark contrast between Patrick Brown and Kathleen Wynne people were on the fence – or at least tied between the two leaders,” Campaign Research CEO Eli Yufest said Monday.

“Now that people have been given more options – namely Doug Ford, Caroline Mulroney, and Christine Elliott – they’re giving the PCs a more serious second look,” said Yufest.

With the party electing a new leader March 10, the pollster surveyed voter intent, testing the premier and her governing party against the three hopefuls.

Elliott, a former MPP, was the most popular – 46 per cent of respondents would cast a ballot for a PC party led by her compared to 23 per cent for Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats, 20 per cent for Wynne’s Liberals, and 7 per cent for Mike Schreiner’s Greens.

Rookie PC candidate Mulroney’s Tories were at 41 per cent compared to 25 per cent for Horwath’s NDP, 22 per cent for Wynne’s Liberals, and 8 per cent for Schreiner’s Greens.

Former Toronto councillor Ford’s PC party was at 39 per cent compared to 24 per cent apiece for Horwath’s NDP and Wynne’s Liberals, and 7 per cent for Schreiner’s Greens.

When no leaders’ names are surveyed, the Tories are at 43 per cent, the Liberals at 28 per cent, the NDP at 20 per cent, and the Greens are at 8 per cent.

Using an online panel of 1,426 Ontario voters, Campaign Research polled between Friday and Sunday. A probability sample of that size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

In January, the company’s monthly tracking survey found Brown’s Tories at 35 per cent, Wynne’s Liberals at 34 per cent, Horwath’s New Democrats at 23 per cent, and Schreiner’s Greens at six per cent.

Yufest cautioned against reading into the latest poll that the June 7 election is a lock for the Tories — no matter who they choose as leader.

“When you’ve got the major upheaval coupled with the intense media attention that’s been given to the party we see a lot of … volatility,” he said, noting all of the controversies plaguing the Conservatives appear to be sticking to Brown not his would-be successors.

“None of them were obviously involved in any of that. All three of the (leadership) candidates are outside of caucus – none of them are sitting MPPs – so these three candidates are the new face or the fresh face of the party.”

As in past Campaign Research polls, Wynne’s personal approval ratings lag behind her party.

The premier had 17 per cent approval, 69 per cent disapproval, and 13 per cent didn’t know.

Horwath had 37 per cent approval, 18 per cent disapproval, and 45 per cent didn’t know.

Elliott had 32 per cent approval, 14 per cent disapproval, and 54 per cent didn’t know.

Ford had 29 per cent approval, 36 per cent disapproval, and 35 per cent didn’t know.

Mulroney had 27 per cent approval, 20 per cent disapproval, and 53 per cent didn’t know.

 

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现在只剩下一个人没有最后确认是否参加党魁竞选了。

到报名截止还有三天时间。可能就这三个竞选人了:

 

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到报名截止还有两天时间。可能就这三个竞选人了:

 

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