OTTAWA – Two members of Parliament from Ontario switched allegiances in the Conservative leadership race on Tuesday as growing divisions led them to throw their support from Patrick Brown to Pierre Poilievre in the name of party unity.
Flamborough-Glanbrook MP Dan Muys and Dufferin-Caledon MP Kyle Seeback previously signaled their support for the Brampton mayor in March, but now say Poilievre is the candidate who can unite the party.
“Let’s put aside the division, let’s unite our movement behind #Pierre4PM,” Seeback wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning.
Muys followed shortly after, backing up Seeback’s sentiments.
“I am increasingly worried about the split,” Muys wrote on Twitter of the party’s leadership race. “Let’s unite behind Pierre Poilievre.”
Party unity has been a growing concern for the Conservative faithful since the contentious leadership race began, and it has only intensified as the rhetoric from the various camps has become less forgiving.
Brown, Poilievre, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison are expected to appear on the first ballot of the leadership election in the fall.
Brown is already in less favor with incumbent caucus members than most of his opponents, and the loss of the two MPs means he has only two left on his side, including campaign co-chair Michelle Rempel Garner.
Brown’s spokesman, Chisholm Pothier, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday night that the campaign likes where it is and sees the lost endorsements as two votes they will pick up “elsewhere.”
“There is a strange lack of confidence coming from the Poilievre camp with its overblown attacks that tells me it’s not all sweet and light there,” Pothier said in an email.
Seeback told reporters in March that he supported Brown in part because of his outspoken opposition to Quebec’s secularism law, which bans religious symbols for public officials in positions of authority.
“There are a lot of cultural communities that take things like Bill 21 very seriously and I think Patrick is going to be the guy to push that forward and be a great leader,” he said in March.
He also said he felt Brown had appeal in the Greater Toronto Area, where Conservatives are trying to build their support.
Seeback and Muys did not immediately respond to requests for further comment on their decision to switch camps.
Several candidates have claimed to be the only ones who can unite the party once the race is over and heal the divisions that have festered since the last election.
But the race could get uglier before that happens, now that the deadline to sell memberships has passed and the candidates are looking to shake up support from their opponents before the vote in September.
Baber issued a statement Tuesday pressing the party to release a preliminary voter list as soon as possible so that the candidates can begin their efforts to persuade supporters to their side over the coming months.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 7, 2022.
Reference-www.cp24.com