At a fundraiser for today’s federal Conservatives, nearly everything is designed to be an applause line. Even the take-home party favour gift bags.
Visitors to the Conservatives’ 1,400-person Stampede barbecue Saturday night were offered gift bags, or tiny little gauzy pouches to be more specific.
They contained Canada flag lapel pins, a couple of Lifesaver breath mints, and the ticket-holder’s choice of buttons.
Everyone likes a political drama, so it’s only natural that the story of Patrick Brown’s disqualification from the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race has generated several days of great excitement across the country, dominating national political news coverage.
Poilievre is going to win, and the Conservative party is going to be fine
The Conservative leadership race is over. Barring something extremely unexpected, Pierre Poilievre will be the next leader of the Conservative party, and he may well be the next prime minister. Patrick Brown’s disqualification only cements this outcome. The victory is likely to be a big one as well, with a first ballot win a serious possibility. This will give Poilievre a plausible mandate to reshape the party in his image, something that the two most recent leaders, Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole, did not possess and something likely to invite apoplectic warnings of many of Canada’s bien pensants, including some within the Conservative party.
I think the CPC braintrust knows the party. They just don’t like the people in it.
Patrick Brown claims he is fighting to stay in the Conservative Party leadership race. But he has already given the final cry of a man who knows he has lost.
When the chips were down and Brown’s campaign was disqualified over an allegation made by a member of his own team, Brown tried to make himself look better by throwing the Conservative base under the bus. In a statement, he said, “I thought Canadians deserved a real conservative alternative … I’m disappointed that we’re being robbed of that opportunity to build a modern, inclusive Conservative Party.”
There was always something off about this guy.
OTTAWA – The chair of the Conservatives’ leadership election organizing committee says the party “could not afford the risk” of having a candidate under investigation for breaking federal laws.
In an email sent to party members Friday morning, Ian Brodie doubled down on the decision as the “right thing” to keep the party “beyond reproach” in the long term.
The missive did not address last night’s late-breaking statement from a whistleblower, Debra Jodoin, who alleged that Brown broke election laws by personally directing a private company to pay for her campaign expenses.
Chi-Coms? Muslims? Tamils? Who wasn’t Brown cozying up with?
The Conservative Party of Canada was taken over by its hardline Reform wing 20 years ago. The Reformers vanquished the old progressive Tories. Now, with leadership frontrunner Pierre Poilievre and with Trumpism as a backdrop, they’re doing it again, re-entrenching on the ideological hard side.
As for the old Tories, they’re boneyard-bound again. Even after Patrick Brown’s disqualification from the leadership race, moderate Jean Charest’s chances of winning are decidedly scant.
Has there been a shift to Poilievre by the Braintrust?
A lawyer for a woman identifying herself as a former organizer on Patrick Brown’s campaign says Brown personally connected her with a third-party company to pay for her work on his campaign.
Debra Jodoin says in a statement released through her lawyer that she briefly worked as a regional organizer for Brown’s campaign from May to the beginning of June.
But wait there’s more…
Tory leadership committee was advised not to approve Patrick Brown’s nomination
Members of the Conservative leadership committee responsible for vetting candidates recommended back in the spring that Patrick Brown’s campaign application not be approved, National Post has learned.
Makes ya wonder if CSIS or the RCMP have something on him.
Strategists say Patrick Brown’s disqualification from the Conservative leadership race gives a leg-up to Pierre Poilievre — but Jean Charest may still have a chance.
The Conservative Party has ejected Brown from the race, citing allegations that he broke financing rules. Brown denies those allegations and his campaign says it’s appealing the decision.
If the disqualification stands, Poilievre will have a clear shot at the Conservative leadership, said Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke.
Jean Charest: Conservatives have a choice, opposition or government
Trudeau and his Liberal government have lost their way. He rose to popularity on soundbites of sunny ways only to disappoint voters.
Canadians are frustrated and disillusioned by him and other politicians who act like him. His appetite for identity politics and far-left ideology has left too many Canadians behind.
Only Charest can win says Charest!
Multiple text messages related to allegations that led to the ouster of Patrick Brown from the federal Conservative leadership race have been turned over to Elections Canada to investigate whether the Brampton mayor knew that a corporation was paying someone in his campaign, sources say.
Details of exactly what was in those text messages have not been revealed by the party, but the sources say there was enough evidence to forward them to the national elections body. Canada’s elections laws bar contributions from corporations, unions or non-residents.
Patrick Brown says the bizarre turn of events that led to him being disqualified from the Conservative leadership race began on June 29.
In an exclusive interview with the Toronto Sun, Brown said that’s when the party began asking a series of questions about his campaign.
After answering questions on a variety of issues, though, Brown said he was booted from the race over an anonymous allegation that an organizer was being paid by a private company to campaign for him. He said his campaign asked for details on who the organizer was, or which company was allegedly paying organizers, but said the party refused to say.
“Once again, our great city is in the national news for all the wrong reasons because of Patrick Brown,” read a scathing statement issued Wednesday morning by five city and regional councillors, claiming Brown’s disqualification in the CPC leadership race demonstrates a “clear and alarming” pattern of behaviour.
OTTAWA – Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the Conservative Party leadership race due to “serious allegations of wrongdoing” that “appear” to violate Canadian election law.
In a statement published late Tuesday, Conservative Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) chair Ian Brodie said organizers became aware of the new undisclosed allegations “in recent weeks.”
One thing about Patrick, he never disappoints. We all knew he was a douchebag and he came through.
h/t RM
Pierre Poilievre’s critics, specifically those on the left, are in a permanent state of hysteria. They have no reference point for a conservative who criticizes institutions, the “gatekeepers” that are, he says, keeping regular people from getting ahead. Nor can his critics reconcile the fact that Poilievre is appealing both to the establishment of his party, as well as to those who don’t usually participate in politics. A liberal who behaves like this is “doing politics differently,” while Poilievre is clearly a “populist” with an unsavoury agenda.
Link fixed. Alternate Link.
I have said since the outset of the Conservative leadership campaign that the overarching issue, the one that trumps all the others, is electability. We are living under an incompetent Liberal government, whose leadership and policies are damaging the country. It is very important that the Conservatives win the next federal election.
