The Brown team officially endorsed Charest and saw it as the best strategy to stop the extremism of its rival Pierre
In a dramatic move, on July 5, the Leadership Campaign Organizing Committee (L.E.O.C.) of the federal Conservative Party of Canada disqualified candidate Patrick Brown from the race. The reason was that he allegedly violated campaign finance rules, and the matter was referred to Elections Canada.
Bringing the whole matter to the forefront of public opinion was a whistleblower, Ms. Debra Jodoin, who sent a letter through her lawyer stating that Patrick Brown agreed to be paid by a third-party private company. At the same time, she worked as a volunteer for Patrick Brown’s election team.
She said that she had raised her concerns with Patrick Brown himself and felt that the practice was inappropriate.
Patrick Brown’s team said, “as happens normally in campaigns which involve thousands of people working across the country, issues relating to volunteer organizers and lobbyists are raised directly with the campaign, and an opportunity to address and remediate the concerns is given. “
And they accuse campaign rival Pierre Poilievre’s team of backstabbing with supporters within L.E.O.C., leading to his loss of candidacy.
Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke said, “This is a clear violation of Canadian Political Regulations, and it’s not something new, or that takes a long time to learn about working in an election. “
However, this is not the first time Brown has had a scandal.
Brown was forced to leave the leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party amid allegations of sexual misconduct, although he denies it.
Patrick’s campaign is still actively appealing, but his team members expressed pessimism. “There is a strong likelihood, however, that this won’t succeed before the vote,” Brown’s campaign wrote Tuesday.
Patrick’s campaign said they would support Jean Charest if Patrick could not restore the candidacy before the vote. The Brown campaign emailed his supporters: “At the end of the day, Jean Charest has the best chance to stop Pierre Poilievre extremism. “
Patrick himself said: “There is no doubt in my mind Jean Charest is the unity candidate our Party needs,” he said.”
According to Jean Charest’s tweet, Patrick Brown has now enlisted 150k members for him. They will work together to defeat their rival, Pierre Poilievre.
However, the results of the current polls do not look good for Patrick and Brown’s alliance either.
According to Postmedia-Léger, 48 percent of respondents voted Poilievre the best choice to become the next Conservative leader, compared to 14 percent for the second most popular candidate, Jean Charest. Brown came in third with 4 percent support. That being said, the leadership race is still months away, and polls are always wrong.
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