Doug Ford, heir to the Rob Ford populist movement in Ontario, says “insiders and elites” want to stop him from leading the provincial Conservative party.
The former Toronto councillor and brother of the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, is running to lead the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party after the sudden exit it Patrick Brown, brought down by accusations of sexual misconduct last week.
Ford told the National Post that the party wants to prevent him from signing-up new members in order to quickly elect another establishment politician.
They’re doing this on purpose to hinder me, because out of all the candidates they know I can sign up more people,” he told the National Post. “This is about … the insiders and the elites trying to figure out how they’re going to stop Doug Ford. The common people want me in there.”
According to party rules, candidates only have till Feb. 16 to attract new members — even though the membership won’t elect a new leader until March 2.
Ford is also critical of the plan to decide the leadership through an e-election that the candidate says is not only subject to hacking but contrary to the secret ballot tradition.
“When someone votes, someone out there is going to be able to see who is voting for who, right? It’s inevitable,” Ford told the Post. “It’s everybody’s God-given right in a democratic society to make sure their vote is going to be confidential. It’s not going to be confidential.”
During Brown’s tenure as leader, the party moved considerably to the left on both social and fiscal issues. Ford is directly challenging that trend and he wants to start by reversing the party’s support for a carbon tax.