Brampton Mayor Brown considering run for Conservative leadership

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says he is “considering” a run for Conservative leadership but hasn’t officially thrown his hat in the political ring.

A possible run at the Conservative captaincy by Brown has been the subject of speculation by political pundits for weeks, and Brampton Mayor has confirmed now he is considering becoming a leadership candidate.

Brown had previously maintained his focus is on Brampton, but said in an interview with insauga.com publisher Khaled Iwamura that he is fielding calls from Conservative insiders.

Details on the Conservative leadership race are being ironed out by a 21-member committee and there is still on set date for the race to begin, but Brampton is also scheduled for a municipal election in October.

“I know there’s a lot of speculation right now, but I still feel it’s premature when you don’t have those types of rules,” Brown said on Friday. “But I will say it’s important for Canada’s democracy to have a competitive conservatve party so we can have an election where you don’t have one party sweep suburban Canada.”

Brown has repeatedly declined to confirm whether he will run again for the mayorship.

For Brown to run for the leadership, he said there would have to be an opportunity for new members to sign up in order to change the flavour of the current membership and to be one that better reflects the country.

RELATED: Will Mayor Patrick Brown run again in Brampton or set sights on Ottawa?

Earlier this month, a majority of Conservative MPs voted to remove Erin O’Toole in a secret ballot vote after just 18 months as leader. Manitoba MP Candice Bergen replaced O’Toole as interim leader

Just hours before O’Toole was ousted as party leader on Wednesday, Brown said he wouldn’t “get into hypotheticals” and would stay the course with “getting Brampton reopened.”

So far Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre is the only candidate to formally declare a bid to succeed O’Toole.

Brown served three terms as an MP for the riding of Barrie before becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in Ontario.

But in 2018, Brown was ousted over allegations of sexual misconduct which the mayor has denied and were never a police matter.

In 2018, Brown was ousted from the Ontario Conservative leadership over allegations of sexual misconduct. The mayor has denied the allegations, which were never a police matter.

Brown was then replaced as leader by Doug Ford, who was elected premier some six months later.