The collage is worth a thousand words, as they say.
There’s more of this sort of thing out there, I’m told.
After revelations like that blockbuster Globe and Mail story – which suggested he had schemed to get a big payment from a man who would get a coveted PC nomination shortly thereafter – I don’t know why he persists in running for anything. It makes no sense.
Brampton, I would expect, is about to remind him why.
…just before he won his party’s leadership.
You can’t make this stuff up.
But, by all means, let him run for mayor of Brampton.
And did he plot to put the resulting many thousands in his own pocket?
Check out this stunner Globe and Mail story. It is simply incredible. .
Former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown was in talks to sell an interest in a restaurant he partially owns and some Aeroplan miles for $375,000 to a man who went on to become a Tory candidate, documents show.
An affidavit detailing a deal was sworn five months before Jass Johal was acclaimed as the candidate for the PC Party in a new riding in the suburban 905 region around Toronto. According to a copy of the affidavit shown to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Johal, a paralegal who lives in Brampton, says he agrees to purchase two million Aeroplan miles and an ownership interest in Hooligans restaurant from Mr. Brown for $375,000. “The amount is paid by certified draft from Bank of Nova Scotia,” says the affidavit dated June 11, 2016 and signed by Mr. Johal.
… Other documents The Globe has seen, including bank statements, show that Mr. Brown deposited $375,000 into his personal account at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce one month after the affidavit was signed, on July 11, 2016. Later that month, property records show he purchased a waterfront house on Lake Simcoe’s Shanty Bay for $2.3-million. He took out a mortgage of $1.72-million from Toronto-Dominion Bank, according to public mortgage documents.
…[Mr. Brown] declined to answer a question about why the amount agreed to in the sworn affidavit was exactly the same as the deposit a month later into his personal account.
Is Patrick Brown a crook?
We shall see. But I know there is one thing he isn’t, and should never be:
A member of the legislature.
I’m told he plans to.
Now, Vic Fedeli did what a few of us felt he needed to do – he needed to kick out the former leader:
UPDATED: Ex-leader Patrick Brown expelled from Ontario PC caucus days before the provincial legislature is set to resume: https://t.co/Ue5r8XJpMJ pic.twitter.com/XcZD1d0XdN
— CBC Toronto (@CBCToronto) February 16, 2018
But get this:
Rumblings that @brownbarrie might be announcing his own leadership bid this afternoon, despite having just been booted from caucus. Stay posted.
— John Ivison (@IvisonJ) February 16, 2018
Is this nuts? Yes, Virginia, it is nuts.
How can you run for leader of a party when you have been booted out of that party’s caucus?
Again: this guy is a human wrecking ball. He wants to bring everyone else down to his level.
That only works, I think, if there isn’t more damaging stuff about him out there.
And, believe me: there is.
Watch this space, folks.
UPDATE: From smart reader Robert White:
Brown can’t run for the leadership unless the official party interim leader signs his nomination papers. Brown is officially out of caucus, and cannot get his nomination papers signed for the riding of Barrie unless his pending litigation is completed by 5:00pm tonight.
Brown is officially out of the Queen’s Park legislature as a sitting MPP due to the fact that he has not signed up under independent status, and can’t sign up for PC Party nomination in his riding. Fedeli can’t commit political suicide by reneging on his vow that he would only sign the nomination papers if Brown cleared his reputation.
Bye bye, Patrick ‘the Clown’ Brown.
Politics in Ontario is fun this time round.
RW