The candidate excluded from the Conservative leadership race Patrick Brown has announced that he will run for mayor of the city of Brampton, a suburb of Toronto, almost two weeks after the abrupt end of his campaign.
• Read also: Excluded from the race, Patrick Brown supports Jean Charest
• To read also: Patrick Brown knew about the illegal financing, according to a former organizer
During a press briefing on Monday noon, Mr. Brown said that the city of Brampton was a “mosaic of the world” and reiterated his opposition to the Quebec government’s law on state secularism, which he had launched a pan-Canadian campaign against the law in late 2021.
“Unfortunately the Conservative Party didn’t want to have a free and fair election, they didn’t want to have a democratic election. We are still considering our legal options to ensure that what has been done is made public,” he said in a scathing attack on the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).
Mr Brown had been kicked out of the race by the CCP’s leadership race steering committee over an allegation that he circumvented funding rules.
The politician promised to fight a legal battle against the party, but admitted that the slope was too steep to return to the race at this stage.
Several important members of his campaign, including at least two co-chairs, have left the ship to join the team of Jean Charest, with whom he shares a vision of the party.
The former Premier of Quebec hopes that this transition will allow him to gain support in the crown of Toronto. Mr. Brown’s campaign said it sold around 150,000 membership cards.
Since his exclusion from the race, Mr. Brown has been quick to resume campaign activities on the ground in Brampton, as municipal elections will be held at the end of October.
Several city councilors strongly oppose his return to the town hall.
In a letter published in early July, the latter reproach the outgoing mayor that the town hall of Brampton was for him only a springboard for a political career on the national scene.
The approximately 650,000 members of the CCP will know their next leader on September 10.
