Patrick Brown disqualified from Tory leadership race

OTTAWA-

The Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership election organizing committee has announced that it has disqualified candidate Patrick Brown from the race to replace Erin O’Toole for the top job.

Election committee chairman Ian Brodie said in a statement that the party has become aware of ‘serious allegations of wrongdoing’ by Brown’s campaign that appear to violate Canada Elections Act fundraising rules. .

The statement did not provide further details on the allegations, and the Brown campaign was not immediately available for comment.

Brodie says the returning officer informed Brown of his concerns and requested a written response, deciding to withdraw his campaign’s draft slate of members.

He says Brown’s campaign response did not address the concerns and the returning officer recommended the leadership election organizing committee disqualify him, which he chose to do.

Brodie says the party will share what it has with Elections Canada and won’t comment further.

He says in his statement that he and the party’s returning officer did their best to be fair to Brown and allow time to refute the allegations.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2022.