The CPC leadership race: Who is Patrick Brown?

You’re listening to a Frequency Podcast Network production, in association with City News.

Jordan Despite what you may have heard, there is in fact, more than one man running to be leader of the federal Conservative Party of Canada. Yes, Pierre Poilievre’s campaign has been loud, incendiary, and impossible to ignore. That’s all by design, of course. But his rival’s campaigns are not that, and that’s also by design. If there is a single place in this country where the next federal election will be decided, almost every political expert will tell you that it is in the suburbs around the greater Toronto area, millions of people, an incredibly diverse area, both culturally and in terms of political leanings. Dozens of seats up for grabs. Whenever the next election happens, it will likely hinge on places like Brampton, Ontario. So it’s not hard to imagine a world in which a largely beloved local politician right from that region would be a huge asset, that

News Clip of Patrick Brown I’ve got the deepest connections to Brampton. Like I said, this is where my family has been working for 40 years now.

Jordan Patrick Brown is not currently the favourite in this race, but he does have a strategy he believes can pay off. It has worked for him before, in fact. So what is that strategy? Will it work this time against a rival who, polls would indicate, has a huge advantage already? And should he somehow come from behind and mount a real challenge. What would a Patrick Brown led Conservative Party look like anyway?

I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. Stephanie Taylor covers Parliament Hill for The Canadian Press. Hello, Stephanie.

Stephanie Taylor Hi there.

Jordan I know that we could do an entire episode on just this history, but maybe can you explain for people outside of Ontario, Patrick Brown’s history with a provincial Progressive Conservative Party. He was an MP. He was party leader for a while. What happened?

Stephanie Taylor Yeah, you’re right about that. Patrick Brown’s career really can be marked by its ups and downs. And his time in conservative politics in Ontario started when he was much younger. So the guy’s born in Toronto, he got involved in politics as a teenager. At the time, he was a big supporter of Jean Charest, who we all know is running against him to be the now federal Conservative leader. And when Brown went to the University of Toronto as a young guy, he served as the President of the party’s national youth wing in the 90s.

Funny enough, at the same time, Pierre Poilievre, one of the contestants in this race, was at the University of Calgary, where he was the President of its conservative campus club. And it’s a little bit funny to think about the history of the 90s is now playing out in full force in 2022. But Patrick Brown, when he was in his early 20s, he was elected as a city councillor for the city of Barrie. And from there in 2006, he was elected as an MP. This is when the Conservatives formed government under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And during his time on the federal scene, which was about nine years, he wasn’t in cabinet. He wasn’t, I would say, like Pierre Poilievre, who really kind of made his career and had high profile roles. That was not what Patrick Brown’s path led him to be. But he decided, before the 2015 federal election, that he wanted to hop back into provincial politics and he ran for leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives. And at that time, he built himself as a real outsider. One of the competitors he was up against at the time was Christine Elliott, who was deputy leader of the party. And Brown ended up winning that contest in 2015. And we can talk about it a little bit later, but he did so really through the sheer fortitude of selling a large amount of memberships and targeting a lot of members of Ontario’s cultural communities, so racialized communities, new immigrants.

And so he was 36. He was leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives at that time. Liberals had been in power for quite a while. So 2018 comes. It’s months before an election when the Liberals have spent more than a decade in power in Ontario. And Brown, as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives. CTV publishes a bombshell report of sexual misconduct allegations from two women against Brown. Brown, when he’s made aware of these reports, he appears at a news conference. He’s alone. He’s emotional. It doesn’t last very long. He categorically denies the allegations against him. He did then. He still does today. And before he left, the news conference said he was going to be fighting for his job. Brown then resigned the next day and within weeks is kicked out of caucus. That’s quite a roller coaster for somebody right before an election is about to begin.

Then fast forward. A few months later, Brown decides to run to be Mayor of Brampton, a city in the GTA of about 6000. And he gets elected not long after. He then releases a book called Takedown: The Attempted Political Assassination of Patrick Brown, where he, according to his words, kind of details what he thought went down when he was a member of Ontario Progressive Conservatives. And he has served as Mayor of Brampton really since ’18. But up and down, I think, might be the most accurate way to describe his time in leadership in Ontario.

Jordan There is literally an entire podcast series in that answer you just gave.

Stephanie Taylor I know it was way too long, but it’s a lot to fit in there.

Jordan It’s great background. And I’m going to ask you now, he wins election as Mayor of Brampton. This is another one for the folks outside of Ontario because this is going to be important to the strategy we’re going to discuss today. Can you describe Brampton’s make-up? Who are Patrick Brown’s constituents there? How has he been received as Mayor?

Stephanie Taylor I’ve heard that Patrick Brown is a very popular Mayor of Brampton. Brampton is a very diverse city. It has a very large seat community. Patrick Brown, as he is talking about during the leadership contest, and we can get into it a little bit later. But he talks a lot about the efforts he has made to make Brampton an inclusive city, hosting Iftar for members of the Muslim community and whatnot.

So Brown entered this leadership race with a reputation as a really dogged organizer before he officially announced, when I was chatting with Conservatives, the one thing they consistently told me is no one can organize like Patrick Brown. So he came in with that reputation. And what he has said to those he is meeting with and those he’s trying to sell memberships to is he’s not entirely trying to win over the existing membership of the Conservative Party, but what he’s trying to do is bring in many, many new members. He said he’s trying to build a more inclusive Conservative Party, and that means he’s focused on racialized communities, immigrants. He’s focused on getting people from the Muslim community to take out Conservative Party memberships. Those from the Tamil community, those from the Sikh community, those from the Filipino Canadian community, those from the Chinese community.

And really since he entered a few months ago, he has spent his time crisscrossing the country, going to ten to twelve events a day, sometimes up for an hour, sometimes a little bit longer, and just making his pitch about why members who have typically not wanted to take out a membership for whatever reason for the Conservative Party should do so for him.

Jordan What is that pitch? How does he make it?

Stephanie Taylor His pitch is really three fold, I would say. First, he is championing himself as an ardent fighter of Bill 21. And this really goes back to his time in Brampton City Hall, where as Mayor, he decided to spearhead this fundraising campaign where big cities were going to be pledging funds to a legal battle against Bill 21. Which, for those outside of Quebec, it’s a controversial secularism law that says if you are working as a public servant in certain positions of authority, you cannot wear religious symbols on the job. So you cannot wear a turban, you cannot wear a kippah, you cannot wear a hijab. And Patrick Brown says that this is an affront to religious freedoms. It is discrimination against racial minorities in this country. So even before entering the federal Conservative leadership race, this is what he was championing. And so when he’s going to these communities, he’s really selling himself as a fighter for religious freedoms.

The second pitch is he’s really offering a seat at the table and he’s going to communities. I would say, for example, like the Nepalese Canadian community, those who are from Nepal and saying, listen, you really don’t have representation in this country. You really don’t have representation in terms of MPs who are from the Nepalese Canadian community or members of the Supreme Court or members of the Senate. And you know how you change that? You get involved and you have to have a friend and an ally in the Prime Minister’s office. And he’s also making very targeted commitments to communities. So, for example, when he speaks to Filipino Canadians, he is saying, I know family is very important to members of the Filipino community who come to this country. And we need to be better at family reunification. And that’s why I would scrap the lottery system. He is also talking about things like cricket infrastructure, for example, where he says again, speaking to Nepalese Canadians that if I’m Prime Minister, you’re going to see better investment in cricket infrastructure. But really, Patrick Brown is offering a seat at the table with very targeted promises.

And the third part of his pitch is really going hard against his rival, Pierre Poilievre. And he’s aligning Pierre Poilievre with Donald Trump, with Marine Le Pen. She recently ran for the French presidency and lost. And she is from the far right. And he is saying that get involved and help change the country’s right wing or what the country’s conservative movement looks like. Brown is really going hard against the fact that Poilievre was a member of Stephen Harper’s government when it went to an election with promises like establishing a tip line for so-called barbaric cultural practices. And Poilievre, I mean, he’s not running on it this time. But Brown is bringing up the fact that Jenni Byrne, who is an advisor on Poilievre’s campaign, was the campaign manager for the 2015 election. And the 2015 election was a pivotal moment, I think, for Conservatives in terms of what that election did for its support in cultural communities. The 2021 election report that was delivered earlier this year, sources say that the 2015 election campaign, the party is still dealing with brand damages from immigrants and cultural communities in some of the largest cities in this country.

And in terms of where the Conservatives need to grow, it is in large cities, it is in the GTA, it is in suburbs. So Brown is really saying that someone like Pierre Poilievre, in that role, isn’t going to help the causes. Now, Pierre Poilievre, for his part, he is also reaching out to cultural communities. He’s also reaching out to members of the Muslim community. And he is promising things like to speed up the recognition of foreign credentials and saying that they can simply not believe the words that Patrick Brown is saying.

Jordan Do we know anything about how Brown’s efforts to change the tide of the race by simply signing up a ton of new members is going? Do we have access to that data? Do we know if membership in the Conservative Party is increasing?

Stephanie Taylor That’s one of the big questions of this race is how many memberships will Patrick Brown be able to sell and how much will he be able to mobilize these communities, which have not typically really been involved in Conservative leadership races. Now, one of the cautions when it comes to how many memberships each camp is able to sell is they’re all going to exude a lot of confidence, and we’re not really going to have an accurate picture of those numbers.

Now, we do know the party is bracing for upwards of 400,000 Conservative party members being signed up and able to vote for the next leader. And the deadline for that is going to be later this summer. The new leader is going to be chosen September 10. And we know that Brown isn’t the only one who’s signing up members, right. Jean Charest is. His path to victory is expanding the Conservative base and signing up many new people. Pierre Poilievre, he has been having massive rallies across the country, but a lot of the campaigns, a lot of Conservatives are watching to see if what Patrick Brown was able to do in Ontario, going to immigrant communities, racialized Canadians, getting them involved in big numbers in terms of memberships, if he is able to replicate that same success in Ontario at a national level.

Jordan You spoke a few minutes ago about Brown’s strategy versus Pierre Poilievre. Brown is also facing off against Jean Charest, and as you mentioned, kind of his mentor and idol. There is a picture, a famous picture, I think, that a lot of people have seen of a young Patrick Brown with a Jean Charest poster on his wall. Has he spoken at all about running against a guy that he clearly has a ton of respect for, and how has he gone after him, if so, to try to make that comparison between himself and Charest?

Stephanie Taylor He has not gone after Mr. Charest. And this was highlighted during the most recent French language debate in Quebec where Charest and Brown both piled on Poilievre for Mr. Poilievre’s stance when it came to Bill 21 and a number of other issues. But it was interesting that the two of them never really took shots at each other, and they were asked about that afterwards by reporters.

If you remember, a few months ago there was a Toronto Star report that said that the two men had some kind of an agreement and both camps have categorically denied that. But both men are very complementary of each other. I mean, Patrick Brown says he gets along with everyone in the race. He’s known them for a while. Mr. Charest is no exception. He talked very favourably about what Mr. Charest did for this country during the referendum with Quebec, about staying or going. And Mr. Charest as well, interestingly, said that he has known Patrick or Mr. Brown since he was about 15 years old. And Mr. Brown should not be underestimated. And that is a recurring theme that I’m hearing from Conservatives in this race is that you do not underestimate what Brown can do in terms of membership sales. But again, that goes to the big question of the race is, is he able to pull off what he did in Ontario at the federal level?

Jordan When you look at the race as a whole and who each of the candidates are courting, how critical are the votes that Brown is going after right now? Not just in the leadership race, but I mean, this leadership race is supposed to be about who can take on the Liberals and win the next federal election. Right?

Stephanie Taylor Conservatives know that whoever wins this contest is going to have to grow their support in cities. That is something all six of these folks who are running know that they need to do. And the argument that Brown is making is, look, I’m the Mayor of the GTA city. Look at I’ve spent my political career in Ontario. And it’s interesting when he goes and speaks to members of the Muslim community, for example, in Alberta, he says, you may not know who I am, but call up folks in Brampton and they can vouch for me. Call up folks in Ontario and say, what do you know about this Patrick Brown character? What is he like? What has he done? So that’s really how he’s pitching himself.

But at the end of the day, Brown’s strategy aside, every Conservative candidate knows that they need to grow in cities. They know that they need to grow in racialized communities with new immigrants. And again, going back to that 2021 election report, sources said that the damage from the 2015 campaign it did for the Conservative Party’s brand with immigrants, with new Canadians, with racialized Canadians is still hurting them in areas where they need to grow. And that outreach is going to have to be important for whoever wins the conservative leadership. And it is important to note that Mr. Brown, although this is a big part of his strategy, he is not the only candidate who is reaching these communities. Pierre Poilievre, as I mentioned earlier, he is meeting with them. He is talking about an economic message, about low taxes, about making it easier to have foreign credentials recognized in order to be able to get into the job market. Leslyn Lewis, who ran in 2020, she talks about herself being an immigrant. She talks about knowing the struggles that immigrants face in this country trying to offer the job market. Roman Baber, the independent MP from Ontario, also talks about his own story and about accessing success in Canada.

Jordan I’m not going to ask you for a lengthy list of Brown’s positions on every issue, and you’ve already touched on his direct appeals to cultural communities. So leaving that out, broadly speaking, what would a Patrick Brown led party be like, or a Patrick Brown led federal government?

Stephanie Taylor One of the things that stands out for Mr. Brown’s campaign compared to others, most notably Pierre Poilievre, is that when it comes to policy positions, he is not the candidate that I would say is putting the most policy in the window to see. Mr. Charest has been doing that quite a lot. Mr. Poilievre has been doing that quite a lot. Mr. Brown, for example, he has talked about that. Most recently, he would repeal the current firearms act in the country and replace it with one that better respects the constitutional rights of Canadians. We don’t really have any details for that one.

But really, Patrick Brown is hammering hard on building an inclusive Conservative party, one that stands up for religious freedoms, against forms of discrimination. I mean, he talks about his time as Brampton’s Mayor, but I do think that is one of the big questions I have as someone who is covering this race is compared to Mr. Charest or compared to Mr. Poilievre that has been making more targeted policy announcements. Mr. Brown, he’s made some policy announcements, but he has not released a full platform. I mean, none of the candidates have. But at this point in the race, I think the focus is on selling memberships and getting the name recognition out there and meeting people. And that has been Mr. Brown, outside of Ontario, as we’re talking about, has been one of the things he needs to do. He needs to get his name out there and he needs to get people to know who he is.

Jordan As you talk to people around the Conservative Party or out on the trail, what do they think about his actual chances of pulling this off? I mean, I know he’s kind of seen right now as being in third place. Is there optimism there beyond folks close to Brown and his team?

Stephanie Taylor No one is saying count Patrick Brown out. He came into this race as a reputation of a dogged organizer, of someone who knows how to mobilize, of someone who knows how to build a team. Can he do it across the country this time? It remains to be seen. One of the important features of a leadership race is it as a ranked ballot system. So it is not necessarily always who are members picking as their number one choice, but who are members going to be picking as their number two or their number three choices.

And when we talk about someone like Mr. Charest, both of them are trying to build a broader Conservative party. They are trying to, if you will, bring more moderates in this party, focus more on centrist in some ways, and will they be able to share a bit of those same voters? How is that dynamic going to work on the down ballot support? I also think of someone like Ms. Leslyn Lewis who is also talking about religious freedoms. How is that going to work with Patrick Brown’s message around Bill 21 and about standing up for religious freedoms as he defines it?

Jordan Here’s my last question, just because I’m curious, if there was one question that you could ask Patrick Brown and he’d be forced to answer truthfully. What would you ask him?

Stephanie Taylor I would ask him how he would keep a caucus together. Patrick Brown is an outsider to the current federal Conservative party in that he is no longer elected as an MP. A lot of the caucus have backed Pierre Poilievre for a number of different reasons. We know he is very popular among the existing grassroots of the Conservative party. There was lots of disappointment in 2020 when we know he decided to not run.

And so, as we’ve seen with Mr. O’Toole, who the reason we are even having this leadership race is because the caucus decided that he was no longer going to be serving as leader. And we can have another episode talking about all the dynamics that were there. But some of that was a mix of the direction of the party. Some of that was a mix of how he managed his caucus. So for someone like Patrick Brown, who again, has been running quite a harsh campaign against Mr. Poilievre and against what the Conservative party has done in the past under someone like Stephen Harper who is still very popular among many Conservatives.

If he wins, how would he keep the caucus together? And if the Liberals deal with the NDP holds and there is not an election from 2025, yes, that gives the next Conservative leader a time to get election ready to recruit candidates to do all the things the party needs to do in order to get ready to go for the polls. But for a party like the Conservatives that have been through a number of cycles of leadership races now and have this big tent and you have to manage the coalition, how would Patrick Brown keep a caucus together when he is running the type of campaign he is and against someone like Mr. Poilievre, who I would argue, is his main rival in this race who has the overwhelming backing of caucus.

Jordan It’s a fascinating question. Stephanie, thank you so much for this.

Stephanie Taylor Thank you.

Jordan Stephanie Taylor is the Parliament Hill reporter for The Canadian press. That was The Big Story.

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I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. Thanks for listening. We’ll talk tomorrow.

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