To: Tanya Allen, Patrick Brown, Christine Elliott, Doug Ford, Caroline Mulroney

Subject: Repudiate the Corrupt Brown-Dykstra Doctrine, An Open Letter

Date: Tuesday, February 20th, 2018

On February 9, 2018, the PC Executive, through its Nominations Committee, overturned

the results of two PC nomination meetings from the ridings of Scarborough Centre and
Ottawa West-Nepean. By all public accounts, both of these nomination meetings were
chaotic and plagued with widespread reports of voting irregularities.

The PC nomination in the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas resulted in similar

allegations. The Hamilton police opened a criminal investigation into possible fraud that
may have occurred at that meeting. The individual identified by the Brown-Dykstra team
as the PC candidate in that race, Ben Levitt, has asked the party to re-open that
nomination calling it “the right thing to do.” We should all commend this display of
leadership while noting that Mr. Levitt could achieve the same result by simply resigning
as the candidate, thus unilaterally forcing a new meeting.

These three above-mentioned meetings represent the most egregious examples of PC

nominations whose results were clouded by public reports of widespread voting
irregularities. But these are not the only PC nominations that were held in violation of the
party’s constitutional mandate to hold “open, public, and democratic” nominations. Since
last summer, the Take Back Our PC Party campaign has been calling for an end to the
corrupt governance of the Ontario PC Party and for nominations to be held in accordance
with the party constitution.

On June 3, 2017, the PC Executive was supposed to consider several appeals to

nominations pursuant to its obligation under the party constitution. Instead, then PC
leader Patrick Brown personally intervened and illegitimately decreed that he would be
appointing all of the declared “winners” of the controversial nomination meetings as the
party’s official candidates, regardless of what any appeals process may have determined.
The party executive bowed to Brown’s decree, breached its obligations under the party
constitution to consider these appeals, and instead rendered the appeals “moot.”

This decision was based on a big lie perpetrated by Patrick Brown and Rick Dykstra –
that the Ontario Election Act gave the leader the “legal responsibility and authority” to
determine which candidates’ nominations papers he would sign and that local nomination
meetings were “not determinative of who will ultimately be listed on the ballot as the PC
Party candidate in a general election.” I call this big lie the “Brown-Dykstra Doctrine.”

In subsequent months, the Brown-Dykstra Doctrine was used by Brown, or members of

his team, to bully qualified candidates out of future PC nomination races. In some
instances, Brown himself threatened not to sign the Elections Ontario nomination papers
of individuals even if they were successful in local PC nominations. Under such duress,
otherwise qualified individuals either dropped out of local nominations or were denied the
opportunity.
As I have previously written1, the Election Act gives the leader no such power. In fact,
while the Ontario Liberal Party constitution allows for up to 5 candidates in a general
election to be directly appointed by their leader, the PC constitution does not give the PC
leader any such power. Instead, the PC constitution makes it clear that all of the party’s
candidates are to be selected through nominations that are “open, public, and
democratic.”

Below this letter is a list of some of the ridings where the final outcome of local PC
nominations was seemingly determined more through the undue influence of such heavy-
handed and unjust tactics than by any “open, public, and democratic” process. In some
cases, “due process” was usurped as individuals were robbed of their chance to run.
Others were even “discredited in the media” and “shunned as outcasts in our party” as a
result of “fabricated allegations” – as Patrick Brown would say. For these individuals,
justice delayed is justice denied. It is now too late for any appeals to be heard. The
nomination meetings must be re-held.

In addition to the list below, there are other PC nominations where individuals were
subjected to heavy handed and unjust tactics or even threats and bullying. These
individuals have yet to publicly speak out for fear of retribution. The scales of justice call
for the PC party to create an environment where these individuals would feel comfortable
in coming forward.

The next PC leader has an obligation under our party constitution to only sign the
Elections Ontario nomination papers of candidates that were “endorsed” by the party
pursuant to “open, public, and democratic” nominations. It is time for our party to overturn
the results of all local nominations where the “candidate” was not determined in this
fashion. The new PC leader must be presented with a slate of PC candidates who are
completely untainted by even a whiff of corruption or impropriety.

As PC leader, will you call on the party’s Nominations Committee to re-open any and all
such questionable nominations?

As PC leader, will you refuse to sign the Elections Ontario nomination papers of any
individual who was selected through a process that was not “open, public, and
democratic?”

Anything less would be an affront to the democratic process and akin to – as Patrick
Brown would say – “frontier justice.”

Jim Karahalios
join@takebackourpcparty.com
TakeBackOurPCParty.com

1
https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2017/11/02/sudbury-by-election-court-decision-could-spell-legal-trouble-
for-pc-leader-patrick-brown/#.Wo2LJYJG3OQ
Schedule: A list of PC nominations determined in violation of the Party’s
constitutional mandate to hold “open, public, and democratic” candidate selection
meetings.

Riding / Individual Currently Listed as the PC “Candidate” / Report

1. Burlington / Jane McKenna

A six-page appeal was submitted to the party that included allegations that some people
were “not on the riding membership voting list and that they were not required to show
identification, that McKenna had signed up 25 members who have the same address and
that there was no proper security for blank ballots sitting on a table.” The unsuccessful
candidate claims she was not approved as a candidate, nor provided with the voters list,
until the evening before the nomination meeting took place. An appeal that was filed was
handled by party officials in a brief call over the phone and no further action was taken.

2. Newmarket - Aurora / Charity McGrath

An appeal filed by the PC riding association board alleged, among other things, that one
candidate was given the voters list at least two weeks before the others. Reports cited
the appeal as stating: “The nomination process and election has been tainted by a blatant
breach of the nomination rules.” When the appeal was not addressed, less than a month
later, the entire riding executive resigned en masse.

3. Durham / Lindsey Park

A regional Councillor Joe Neal received approval to seek the nomination before suddenly
having his approval rescinded a week before the meeting. His candidacy was rejected
based on false allegations made by Patrick Brown that were intended to discredit Neal in
the media as having previously been a donor to the Liberals. Neal proceeded to take the
party to court but withdrew his legal challenge after Brown threatened that he would not
sign his Elections Ontario nomination papers even if a judge ruled in Neal’s favour and
Neal ended up winning the PC nomination meeting. Brown apologized to Neal a full month
after the nomination meeting was decided.

4. Glengarry - Prescott - Russell / Amanda Simard

The apparent leading candidate in the race was disqualified mere days before the
nomination meeting after he claims he had sold over 1,200 memberships. This resulted
in an acclamation.
 5. Carleton / Goldie Ghamari

According to reports, the allegations of impropriety in this nomination remain vague. It is

rumoured that more than one candidate may have been disqualified and an unknown
number of others were discouraged from running even before starting their campaigns.

6. Flamborough - Glanbrook / Donna Skelly

The nomination resulted in an acclamation after two individuals were told by party officials
that the party leader Patrick Brown would not sign either of their nomination papers if
either won the contest.

7. King - Vaughan / Stephen Lecce

Police were called to the nomination meeting. Two days before the meeting a candidate
was disqualified. Allegations also involved PC members not being included in the final
voter list. When asked about the rules being broken by the party (i.e. calling the meeting
without notice to the local riding board), then party president Rick Dykstra said the rules
are a “suggested guideline” and “there are exceptions to the rule.”