Candidate Patrick Brown, who had hoped to replace Erin O’Toole as leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, was expelled from the race by the party’s election committee Tuesday night over “serious allegations of wrongdoing”.
Updated yesterday at 11:52 PM.
“In recent weeks, our party has become aware of serious allegations of wrongdoing by the Patrick Brown campaign, which appear to be in violation of the rules governing the financial provisions of Canada’s election law,” said Ian Brody, chair of the Conservative Party Elections Committee. Canada, Tuesday evening.
The statement did not provide details of the allegations relating to Mr Brown, who is also the mayor of Brampton, Ont. Mr Brown’s campaign members could not immediately be reached for comment on the situation.
According to Brody, the organizing committee for the party leadership contest informed the Patrick Brown campaign of its concerns and requested a written response, and decided to revoke Brown’s access to the party’s provisional membership list.
Information from Mr Brown’s campaign committee “did not address the concerns” of the organizing committee, which then recommended his exclusion from the leadership race.
“The party will share the information collected with Elections Canada, which is responsible for ensuring compliance and enforcement of Canada’s election law,” Mr. Brody added.
More than five candidates
In his statement he also noted that he and the organizing committee had done their best to be fair to Mr. Brown and to give him time to refute the allegations.
On June 22, campaign manager Patrick Brown left him to support Michelle Remple Garner, who was then planning to become the candidate for the Alberta United Conservative Party, according to Global News.
The race for the leadership of the Canadian Conservative Party now has only five candidates: Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, Pierre Pouliver, Romain Papier and Scott Aitchison.
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