Former federal finance minister Joe Oliver will be running for Patrick Brown’s provincial Progressive Conservatives, the Star has learned.

Oliver — prime minister Stephen Harper’s treasurer until losing his seat in Eglinton-Lawrence in last October’s vote — plans to seek the Tory nomination in York Centre for the 2018 election.

“I really believe that we have a problem here in Ontario,” he said in an interview Monday.

“In my opinion, Ontarians have been suffering far too long from the waste, incompetence, and political scandals of the Kathleen Wynne government.”

As Harper’s right-hand man in Ottawa, he was not shy about sparring with the Liberal premier on issues such as pension reform, climate change, and infrastructure spending.

Now, Oliver acknowledged, it’s time to put his money where his mouth was by coming to Queen’s Park.

“I do believe there’s an opportunity to change things and if I can contribute to that in the election and later in the government by using my experience in finance . . . it would be a great honour,” said Oliver, adding he feels a “sense of obligation” to serve Ontarians.

Oliver, 76, plans to square off against veteran York Centre Liberal Monte Kwinter, 85, the oldest MPP in Ontario history.

Kwinter, who has been recovering from an unspecified illness at a Toronto retirement home in recent weeks, has not been seen at Queen’s Park for several months. But he was working in his constituency on Friday and he was part of Wynne’s trade mission to Israel in May.

While the next election is not until June 7, 2018, the Tories expect to nominate a York Centre candidate between December and February.

Oliver is one of many former Conservative MPs who want to join Brown, himself an MP from 2006 until 2015, in provincial politics.

Other names being mentioned include defeated parliamentarians Paul Calandra from Markham and Mississauga’s Bob Dechert.

PC Party president Rick Dykstra, St. Catharines MP until losing his seat in the federal Liberal sweep last fall, had his hopes of becoming an MPP dashed on Saturday.

Dykstra, 50, lost the Niagara West-Glanbrook nomination for the Nov. 17 by-election to Sam Oosterhoff, a 19-year-old freshman at Brock University.

Oosterhoff, a social conservative who was backed by anti-abortion activists and those opposing the updated sex-education curriculum, did not return messages seeking comment Monday.

Campaigning in Ottawa-Vanier with his other Nov. 17 by-election candidate Andre Marin, the former Ontario ombudsman, Brown insisted the teen was onside with his progressive views.

“I’ve spoken to him, he certainly supports my direction of the party,” the PC leader told the Ottawa Citizen’s Brian Platt.

“On marriage equality, on sex education, I’ve made my position very clear, abundantly clear, around the province. He told me he supports my position,” said Brown.

While Tories are publicly welcoming Oosterhoff’s candidacy, privately they are worried about the signal that Dykstra’s defeat sends about their leader’s grip on the party.

There are concerns social conservatives could take over other ridings just as Brown is trying to recast his party — which leads in public-opinion polls — as a moderate mainstream alternative to the Liberals.

Wynne, for her part, sounded almost gleeful that the Tories have nominated a teenager against Liberal lawyer Vicky Ringuette.

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“It’s a very cool thing that a 19-year-old would want to step up,” the premier said.

“Now, we have a very strong progressive woman running in Niagara West—Glanbrook and there will be a clear distinction between the ideas of this young man and the ideas of our candidate. But that’s as it should be in a democratic process,” she said.

Retired police officer Mike Thomas is the NDP candidate in Niagara West—Glanbrook.

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