The interim boss of the scandal-plagued Progressive Conservatives is abandoning his own leadership ambitions to “root out any rot” found in the chaos following Patrick Brown’s resignation.

With the June 7 election looming, Vic Fedeli has ordered investigations into membership lists that are suspect, computer systems hacked in November, and questionable spending by the party executive under Brown and former president Rick Dykstra, who abruptly quit Sunday night.

“Fixing this, and it needs fixing, will be a massive undertaking,” Fedeli, the MPP for Nipissing, bluntly told a news conference Tuesday.

“Our party structure is in much worse shape than we knew,” he added, acknowledging “we need to show we’re ready to govern Ontario.”

At the same time, the Star has learned Fedeli’s office is co-operating with a police investigation into irregularities in a Tory candidate nomination in the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas last May.

The departure of Fedeli, the party’s long-time finance critic and a former North Bay mayor, from the race clears the way for Doug Ford and first-time PC candidates Caroline Mulroney and Rod Phillips.

Since none of them hold a seat in the Legislature, there is a push within the Tory caucus for 2015 leadership runner-up and former MPP Christine Elliott to run.

Elliott is now Ontario’s patient ombudsman, a patronage job from Premier Kathleen Wynne that pays $220,000 a year. But Elliott, who took the defeat by Brown badly, is said to be happy in that post.

Hamilton police would not comment of the details of the nomination probe, but confirmed Tuesday that detectives are still looking into allegations of fraud and forgery against unnamed Conservatives.

“I have no new information to share at this time. The investigation is continuing. I am certain if anything comes forward it will be shared,” said Hamilton police Const. Lorraine Edwards.

Amid the tumult, MPP Monte McNaughton, who was a kingmaker in the 2015 leadership won by Brown, has decided not to enter the race.

McNaughton was endorsed in the last contest by former Toronto mayor Rob Ford so is under a lot of pressure from social conservatives and others to help Doug Ford.

Fedeli said he has been too busy with the troubles at party headquarters since being chosen by caucus as interim leader Friday to look into the Hamilton nomination mess and other races that have raised eyebrows.

Phillips, the former chair of Postmedia and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, who is running in Ajax, tweeted support for Fedeli, who promised to be a “steady hand” fixing the party apparatus and keeping the heat on Premier Kathleen Wynne at the Legislature when it resumes in mid-February.

“We are very fortunate to have a strong leader in @VicFedeliMPP who will keep us focused on the common goal of defeating Kathleen Wynne while we select a new leader. Thank you Vic,” Phillips wrote.

Mulroney, the candidate in York-Simcoe, sent a similar note on Twitter and said “I will continue to speak with party members about running.” She was, again, unavailable for further comment.

Brown resigned at 1:25 a.m. Thursday just hours after CTV broadcast a report revealing allegations of sexual impropriety with two women when they were teens and he was a Conservative MP.

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Dykstra’s resignation came Sunday after he was contacted by Maclean’s magazine about an alleged sexual assault on a Parliament Hill staffer in 2014. Both Brown and Dykstra have denied the allegations. No charges were laid in either case and nothing has been proven in court.

Despite the allegations against Dykstra, his successor as president, Jag Badwal, has decreed that under the party constitution he can remain on the executive as past president.

That change means the previous president, Richard Ciano, who is opposed to a leadership contest because he is concerned about “fraudulent memberships” and inconsistencies on the party list, is off the executive.

Fedeli said Dykstra, a former MP for St. Catharines, should “do the right thing” and resign from the executive.

It is now a virtual certainty that a leadership election will be held before March 24 and as early as March 10. There will be a $75,000 entry fee plus a $25,000 deposit to the party and a $300,000 spending limit.

Fedeli said it will be impossible to have a “clean and fair” leadership race unless the membership list is cleaned up. While Brown recently boasted the party had reached 200,000 members, skeptics have cast doubt on that figure.

Sources say some people have multiple memberships in different ridings under slightly different names, wildly overstating the number of actual members. Insiders say the real number could be closer to 75,000.

“I have ordered a complete investigation into the names and addresses of those 200,000 (members). Like you, I’ve heard the stories,” Fedeli said, promising investigators will look “right down into IP addresses of where these came from to see if they are all individuals.”

Fedeli, who withdrew from the 2015 leadership after seven months because of a struggle selling memberships and raising money, said he wants to leave the party in “the best possible condition” for a full-time leader.

“Our party needs someone at the helm with a very solid hand to be able to work on our real opponent, and that is the current government. The challenges ahead are massive.”

Mulroney’s candidacy is generating buzz on social media.

The daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney is being mocked with an @AirMulroney twitter account, picturing her face on the tail of an Airbus jet, a reference to a scandal that swirled around her father in the 1990s.

Not all the online attention is savage. Her sister-in-law Jessica Mulroney has posted an Instagram poll saying “we need more smart and competent women in politics” and asking if Mulroney should run.

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