OTTAWA-
Patrick Brown’s campaign said it was consulting with his legal team after the Federal Conservatives’ leadership election organizing committee voted to disqualify him from the race on Tuesday night.
Ian Brodie, Committee Chairman, announced the surprising move in a written statement after a meeting to discuss the matter.
He said the party had recently become aware of “serious allegations of wrongdoing” by the Brown campaign.
The allegations are related to the funding rules of the Canada Elections Act, Brodie said, but did not provide further details.
Brown’s campaign responded with a statement accusing the party of basing its decision on “anonymous accusations” and without providing full details or evidence.
He accused the party of going on a “fishing expedition” and not giving the campaign “enough time” to respond, but said it “still complied with all the strange requests and unsubstantiated claims.”
He went on to say that the move disenfranchises thousands of Brown supporters, who bought a party membership before the June 3 deadline to choose their name on the Conservative party’s classified ticket.
“This is reprehensible and undemocratic behavior that breaks the faith of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who embraced Patrick Brown’s vision of a modern and inclusive Conservative party,” the statement said.
In his statement Tuesday night, Brodie said the party’s canvassing director informed Brown of concerns he received regarding his campaign financing, requested a written response and decided to withhold his campaign’s list of provisional members. .
Brodie said Brown’s campaign response did not meet concerns and the canvassing director recommended that the leadership election organizing committee disqualify him, which voted to do so.
Brodie said the party will share what it has with Elections Canada.
He said both he and the party’s canvassing director went to great lengths to be fair to Brown, who is the current mayor of Brampton, Ontario, and a former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. He also said that they did everything possible to allow time to refute the accusations.
“None of these issues have any impact on the integrity of the vote itself,” Brodie said.
“While we feel it is important to provide a transparent response to party members on this matter, because this issue is now the subject of further investigation, we will not speak further on the matter.”
Brown’s campaign accused the party of pandering to the leading candidate seen as his main rival for the top job.
“Why is the party doing this? I was expecting a coronation for Pierre Poilievre,” the statement said.
The campaigns of Poilievre, a longtime Ottawa-area MP, and Brown have been attacking each other throughout the race.
Poilievre had not yet responded to the decision of the leadership election organizing committee Tuesday night.
The campaign of former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who is also in the leadership race, responded by calling the news “deeply troubling.”
“We look forward to further communications regarding the allegations of wrongdoing,” Charest campaign spokeswoman Michelle Coates-Mather wrote.
“Transparency is paramount. We need to understand what the allegations are and how the Patrick Brown campaign responded.”
The Conservatives will announce the winner of the leadership race in Ottawa on September 10.
The other candidates in the race are Leslyn Lewis and Scott Aitchison, Conservative MPs from Ontario, as well as Roman Baber, a former independent member of the Ontario legislature.
Although he has been disqualified, his name is expected to continue to appear on the qualifying ballot. A party spokesman said Tuesday night that a large number of them had already been mailed to members.
Last week, the party said some 675,000 members had registered to vote for a new leader of the Conservatives.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2022.