Christine Elliott, Caroline Mulroney joining Ontario PC race

With a simple tweet of “I’m in,” Ontario PC MPP Christine Elliott officially entered the race to replace Patrick Brown on Thursday. Meanwhile, Caroline Mulroney, the Toronto Sun has learned, is expected to announce her own bid for the job on Monday.

Sources had confirmed to the Sun that Elliott, who has already twice run for the leadership, has organized a campaign team and spoken to supporters and other candidates now that the party executive has scheduled a March 10 leadership vote.

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Elliott spoke with Doug Ford Wednesday, sources said, who has been a close friend to Elliott and her husband, the late provincial and federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.

In 2006, Elliott ran and won for the PCs in Whitby—Ajax after Flaherty sought a federal seat. Elliott won in 2011 and 2014, served as deputy leader of the party and twice ran unsuccessfully for the party leadership, first against Tim Hudak and then Patrick Brown.

In December 2015, Elliott was appointed by the Ontario Liberal government to serve as the province’s first-ever patient ombudsman, where she investigated unresolved complaints from patients, residents and clients of hospitals, long-term care homes and Community Care Access Centres.

Caroline Mulroney is the Ontario PC candidate on York—Simcoe and daughter of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. She’s a trained lawyer and has worked in finance.

One source on the Mulroney team who reached out to the Sun spoke dismissively of Elliott, arguing that “she’s done this twice before and retired from politics to take a Liberal patronage appointment. We need an outsider who embodies change, can turn the page and beat Kathleen Wynne.”

To date, Ford is the only candidate to have publicly declared his intention to seek the party leadership following Brown’s resignation over bombshell allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations he has denied.

Ford is planning a massive leadership rally on Saturday and, along with Elliott, will need to win the approval of the Conservative Party’s Provincial Nomination Committee (PNC), which is responsible for vetting candidates and will need to approve both Elliott’s and Ford’s candidacy.

The party executive met Wednesday evening and adopted leadership contest rules including an entry fee of $100,000, a $25,000 data fee for party membership lists and a $750,000 spending limit. Candidates will have to comply with new campaign rules imposed by the Liberals following their cash-for-access scandal that will limit contributions to $1,200 from any individual supporter and exclude corporations and unions from contributing.

The executive is meeting again on Saturday to revise the membership of the party’s PNC committee. It is also expected the executive will officially accept the resignation of former party president Rick Dykstra, who also resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations he has denied.

“It’s certainly been a difficult week for the party, but the past few days have shown we’re back on the right track,” executive member Marc Marzotto told the Sun. “Already we’ve seen a number of incredibly strong candidates come forward, and I think we’ll see more. You can feel the excitement, and our members are looking forward to picking our new leader.”

Meanwhile, the housecleaning at the top of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, which has already seen long-time party activist Jag Badwal elevated to party president and Richard Ciano, who was past president prior to Dykstra, appointed back onto the executive.