Patrick Brown (Canadian politician)

For other people with the same name, see Patrick Brown (disambiguation).

Patrick Brown MPP
Leader of the Opposition in Ontario
In office September 14, 2015 – January 25, 2018
Preceded by	Jim Wilson
Succeeded by	Vic Fedeli
Leader of the Ontario PC Party
In office May 9, 2015 – January 25, 2018
Preceded by	Jim Wilson (interim)
Succeeded by	Vic Fedeli (interim)
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Simcoe North
Incumbent
Assumed office September 3, 2015
Preceded by	Garfield Dunlop
Member of Parliament for Barrie
In office January 23, 2006 – May 13, 2015
Preceded by	Aileen Carroll
Succeeded by	Riding Abolished
Personal details
Born	Patrick Walter Brown (1978-05-26) May 26, 1978 Toronto, Ontario
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Conservative Party of Canada
Relations	Joe Tascona (uncle)
Residence(s)	Barrie, Ontario
Education	St. Michael's College School
Alma mater	University of Windsor (LL.B.) University of Toronto (B.A.)
Profession	Lawyer

Patrick Walter Brown MPP (born May 26, 1978) is a Canadian politician and Independent Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the riding of Simcoe North. Brown was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and Ontario's Leader of the Official Opposition from May 2015 to January 2018.

Brown's political career began when he served on the Barrie City Council in the early 2000s. From 2006 until 2015, Brown was a federal Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada representing the riding of Barrie. In May 2015, Brown was elected leader of the Ontario PC Party, and stepped down as MP. He then won a provincial by-election on September 3, 2015, in Simcoe North and entered the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. In January 2018, two women accused Brown of sexual misconduct during the time he was a federal MP. Brown denied the allegations, but resigned as party leader hours later. Interim PC leader Vic Fedeli expelled Brown from the party caucus on February 16, 2018, and Brown on that same day registered to run for the PC leadership once again. On February 21, Brown passed the PC Party's Provincial Nominations Committee vetting process. On February 26, Brown withdrew from the leadership race.On March 15, 2018, Patrick Brown tweeted that he would not running Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte.

Early life and career

Brown was born in Toronto of Irish and Italian descent, and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. His father, Edmond Brown, a criminal lawyer in Peel Region and former federal New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Davenport in 1979 and 1980, was raised in England and Ireland before moving to Canada, and his mother, Judy (née Tascona) Brown, is of partial Italian descent, and an educator (teacher and principal) from Barrie.

Brown is the nephew of Joe Tascona, a Barrie Progressive Conservative MPP in the Mike Harris government. He graduated from St. Michael's College School, a private Catholic school in Toronto. He studied political science at the University of Toronto, and graduated with a law degree from the University of Windsor. During his second year at law school, he was one of 10 recipients of the As Prime Minister Award. He worked for Magna International in their legal department for four years.

Brown served two terms as President of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation (PCYF), a position he held from 1998 to 2002. He also served on the executive of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, as a Vice President. As PCYF President, Brown was one of the early supporters of a united right and was criticized for his decision to support a united right from party leader Joe Clark and Member of Parliament Scott Brison. Brown was later re-elected as PCYF president with 81 percent of the vote against Jonathan Frate of Manitoba.

Brown was the Deputy Chairman of the International Young Democrat Union (IYDU). He has also represented Canada on a number of international assistance projects hosted by the IYDU.

Municipal politics

Brown was elected to the Barrie City Council in 2000 at age 22, and was re-elected in 2003.

Brown served on various Committees, including the Budget Committee. Brown's primary focus while on council was health care, despite it being a provincial responsibility. In response to a shortage of doctors, Brown founded the Physician Recruitment Task Force with the Royal Victoria Hospital to help attract more doctors to Barrie.

Federal politics

In the 2004 federal election, Brown ran as the Conservative Party candidate in the riding of Barrie. He lost to incumbent Aileen Carroll by 1,295 votes. Brown ran again in 2006, this time defeating Carroll by 1,523 votes. He was re-elected in the 2008 election by 15,295 votes over Liberal candidate Rick Jones.

In November 2010, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed concern about how Patrick Brown used his Canadian House of Commons account. He sent flyers to his riding which included a letter of support and a flyer from Barrie City Councillor Michael Prowse. Brown used his House of Commons account to pay for the mailing because Michael Prowse could not afford to send the flyer out himself.

In the 2011 election, Brown was elected to his third term in office.

On September 28, 2014, he announced his intention to run in the 2015 Ontario party leadership election. He registered as a leadership candidate on November 20, 2014. He said that, unlike the other candidates, he was not involved in the four consecutive losses that have kept the Ontario PCs out of power since 2003. At the time of his jump to provincial politics, he chaired the Conservative Party of Canada's Greater Toronto Area caucus and the Canada-India Parliamentary Association.

Provincial politics

See also: Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election, 2015

In September 2014, Brown announced his intention to run in the contest to replace PC Party Leader, Tim Hudak. From the outset of his campaign, Brown positioned himself as an outsider, challenging the leadership of the PC Party, which had been defeated in the last four provincial elections. In the most recent election campaign, in 2014, the party election platform included a commitment to cut 100,000 public service jobs over 4 years through attrition. As the only one of the original five leadership candidates who was not a member of the Ontario legislature, Brown was not involved in the promise, which he considered ill-advised, Brown's rivals attempted to use this same lack of previous involvement in provincial politics as an argument against his leadership bid.

In March, Brown emerged as the front-runner in the leadership election, having sold over 40,000 of the 70,000 memberships in the party. During the campaign, Brown was successful in bringing many new members to the party, many of whom came from ethnic communities. The past four leadership contests had been won by those who sold the most memberships.

Brown was endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition and the Ontario Landowners Association. During Brown's leadership bid both special interest groups actively supported him by selling Ontario PC Party memberships amongst their members.

Brown was criticized by his main rival, Christine Elliott, for not resigning his federal seat during the leadership campaign. Brown was absent from the House of Commons for some votes during the leadership campaign, attending 56% of the votes from September to December in 2014. However, his overall attendance for votes in 2014 was 83%. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that members are not expected to step down but are expected to "continue to fulfill their parliamentary responsibilities, including membership on committees and attendance at votes."

The campaign started with five candidates including Vic Fedeli, Lisa MacLeod, and Monte McNaughton. All three withdrew in early 2015 citing membership recruitment or financial reasons.

Progressive Conservative leader (2015-2018)

On May 9, 2015, Brown was elected leader, defeating his only remaining opponent, Christine Elliott, winning with 61.8% of the membership vote.

Brown, who resigned his seat in the House of Commons on May 13, 2015, days after winning the provincial leadership, led the Progressive Conservative party from outside the legislature during most of the summer. On July 22, 2015, Garfield Dunlop agreed to step down as MPP for Simcoe North on August 1 in order to open up a seat for Brown. A provincial by-election, called for September 3, 2015, was won by Brown.

Under his leadership, the Ontario PC Party has won five by-elections, including two seats which had been previously held by the governing Liberals - Sault Ste. Marie and Scarborough-Rouge River.

Sexual misconduct allegations and resignation

On January 24, 2018, Brown was accused by two women of engaging in sexual misconduct, which dated back to the time he was a federal MP. Brown denied the allegations and initially refused to step down. Four senior staff from Brown's campaign had advised him that he should resign as party leader; he did not accept their advice and consequentially the staff jointly resigned from his campaign team. After pressure from within the party, he resigned as leader in the early hours of January 25. The day after his resignation, he was succeeded on an interim basis by Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

Fedeli, who was unanimously elected by caucus the day after Brown's resignation, asked Brown to take a leave of absence from Queen's Park while he defends himself against the allegations. He added that he would not sign Brown's nomination papers if he attempted to run in a Barrie riding at the June 7 provincial election. Brown had intended on running in Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte in that election, but Fedeli's announcement would mean that he would have to run as an independent.

In one incident, there was an allegation that Brown exposed himself to a teenager and asked her to engage in oral sex after plying her with alcohol. The accuser alleged that she was an 18-year-old high school student when the oral sex incident occurred but on February 13, 3 weeks after the first public report, she amended her claim to say she was a year older than she had previously recalled and was therefore over the legal drinking age. In the other incident, Brown was alleged to have kissed, without consent, a female aide in his employ while in his bedroom. Brown later took a lie detector test and claimed that he felt his name was cleared. No charges have been laid as a result of either alleged incident. Brown has since then file a libel notice against CTV News. He then entered the PC leadership race less than one or two hours before the deadline.

Expulsion from PC caucus and brief second run for the leadership

Brown was ejected from the PC caucus on February 16, 2018, following reports that he was claiming he hadn't actually resigned as party leader and a series of Facebook posts in which he attacked the credibility of his accusers. Later that same day, Brown registered as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative leadership election, pending approval from the party, and on February 21, after being vetted, Brown was given the "green light" by the PC Party to run for the leadership.

Brown officially launched his second leadership campaign on February 18 with a rally in Mississauga.

On February 20, PC MPP Randy Hillier filed complaints to Ontario's Integrity Commissioner alleging that Brown had breached the province's ethics rules.

Brown withdrew his candidacy for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario on February 26, 2018, citing the difficulties of simultaneously running for leader while fighting against allegations against him. His withdrawal came days after the revelation that Integrity Commissioner was investigating Brown for alleged financial improprieties and several hours after a report revealing his apparent interference, while he was leader, in a Tory candidate nomination that is now being investigated by Hamilton police for fraud. Brown's supporters cited harassment against members of his family as one cause of his decision to withdraw. Brown $100,000 registration fee was not refunded by the party.

After, Doug Ford was chosen as the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, their were rumors that Brown would not allowed to run under their banner.

On March 15, 2018, Patrick Brown tweeted that he would not running Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte.

Political views

Brown identifies himself as a "pragmatic conservative" and after becoming leader he tried to move the Ontario PC Party in a socially liberal and fiscally conservative direction. At his first Ontario PC Convention as the new leader, Brown confirmed his belief in man-made climate change and announced his support for a revenue-neutral price on carbon. Brown was also the first Ontario PC leader to march in the Toronto Pride Parade. Among his political mentors, Brown lists former Ontario Premier Bill Davis, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Much of Brown's time at Queen's Park was spent criticizing and debating the government's energy policies. He promised to dismantle the Green Energy Act, rein in executive salaries at Hydro One, and place a moratorium on the signing of new energy contracts.

Patrick Brown's first Private Member's Bill in the Ontario Legislature, Bill 151 the Estate Administration Tax Abolition Act, was an attempt to eliminate Ontario's estate administration, or probate tax. His bill was voted down at Second Reading by the Liberal Government's majority.

During his tenure as leader Brown was noted for his close relationship with many of Ontario's diverse ethnic communities. He spoke in the Legislature in support of a motion condemning Islamophobia, and was one of the first Canadian politicians to refer to the Tamil Genocide. Brown has a personal relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who refers to him as "Patrick Bhai" ("Brother Patrick") and named him an honorary citizen of Gujarat.

His critics called him "policy-lite" since he made no policy statements during the Progressive Conservative leadership campaign. After winning the leadership race, he focused his plan on four main issues which he suggested would lead to a more prosperous province: less red tape, improved transportation corridors, affordable energy, and addressing Ontario's growing skills gap.

Brown's shift of the party to the political centre stood in contrast to his time in federal politics. As a federal MP, Brown had been one of the more socially conservative members of the Conservative caucus. As an MP, Brown voted to re-open the same-sex marriage and abortion debates, and also voted against legalizing euthanasia and including gender expression in the Human Rights Act. He later said those votes were to represent his constituents. Brown said that he didn't intend to revisit any of these issues in the provincial legislature.

Personal life

Brown is currently in an relationship with Genevieve Gualtieri, his on and off girlfriend, who used to work for him as an intern and is now working at the SickKids Foundation. Working as an MPP, Brown lived in a Bay St. condo close to Queen’s Park. In addition, Brown lives in a sprawling $2.3 million waterfront house on Lake Simcoe, which he bought in 2016. Brown used to date Tamara Macgregor, a former staffer within Brown office and daughter of Karma Macgregor, then controversial nominated candidate to Ottawa-Nepean.

Electoral record

Provincial

Ontario provincial by-election, September 3, 2015: Simcoe North Resignation of Garfield Dunlop
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	Patrick Brown	21,095	53.68	+9.74	$117,157.00
	Liberal	Fred Larsen	9,281	23.62	–8.90	$94,892.00
	New Democratic	Elizabeth Van Houtte	6,637	16.89	+1.34	$54,795.23
	Green	Valerie Powell	1,791	4.56	–3.43	$183.33
	New Reform	James Gault	200	0.51	–	–
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	146	0.37	–	–
	Libertarian	Darren Roskam	104	0.26	–	–
	Pauper	John Turmel	47	0.12	–	–
Total valid votes			39,301	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			170	0.43
Turnout			39,471	40.71
Eligible voters			96,950
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+9.32
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2015). "Official Returns from the Records, 086 Simcoe North" (PDF). Retrieved 17 November 2015.

Federal

2011 Canadian federal election: Barrie
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Patrick Brown	32,121	56.69	+4.32	$94,892.28
	New Democratic	Myrna Clark	11,846	20.91	+8.90	$15,554.25
	Liberal	Colin Wilson	9,111	16.08	-7.80	$66,558.48
	Green	Erich Jacoby-Hawkins	3,271	5.77	-5.33	$31,306.84
	Libertarian	Darren Roskam	150	0.26	-0.23	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Christine Nugent	82	0.14	-0.02	–
	Canadian Action	Jeff Sakula	77	0.14	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			56,651	100.00	–	$96,630.18
Total rejected ballots			174	0.31	–
Turnout			56,825	60.70	–	–
	Conservative hold		Swing		-2.29
Source(s) "Elections Canada Candidate Campaign Returns". Elections Canada Candidate Campaign Returns. Elections Canada.

2008 Canadian federal election: Barrie
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Patrick Brown	27,927	52.37	+10.5	$91,512
	Liberal	Rick Jones	12,732	23.88	-15.3	$80,023
	New Democratic	Myrna Clark	6,403	12.01	-0.2	$16,038
	Green	Erich Jacoby-Hawkins	5,921	11.10	+4.3	$58,204
	Libertarian	Paolo Fabrizio	260	0.49	N/A	$171
	Marxist–Leninist	Christine Anne Nugent	84	0.16	N/A	$0
Total valid votes/Expense limit			53,327	100	$92,671

2006 Canadian federal election: Barrie
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Patrick Brown	23,999	41.88	+1.8	$81,530
	Liberal	Aileen Carroll	22,476	39.18	-3.5	$69,313
	New Democratic	Peter Bursztyn	6,984	12.18	+1.5	$14,496
	Green	Erich Jacoby-Hawkins	3,874	6.76	+0.2	$19,036

2004 Canadian federal election: Barrie
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Aileen Carroll	21,233	42.7
	Conservative	Patrick Brown	19,938	40.1
	New Democratic	Peter Bursztyn	5,312	10.7
	Green	Erich Jacoby-Hawkins	3,288	6.6

External links

• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history (archived)
• Patrick Brown – Parliament of Canada biography
• Speeches, votes and activity at OpenParliament.ca