Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown is scrambling to do damage control after a self-inflicted sex-education curriculum snafu on the eve of Thursday’s Scarborough-Rouge River byelection.

One day after admitting in an online Star opinion piece that it was “a mistake” for the Tories to distribute a signed letter from him promising to scrap the controversial syllabus, Brown was on a mea culpa media tour Tuesday.

“Ultimately, as a leader, you have to take responsibility for what your team does. I take full responsibility,” he told CBC Radio’s Matt Galloway on Metro Morning in the first of several press interviews across Toronto.

“It was (an) error because it didn’t reflect my views.”

Brown told AM640’s John Oakley Show that while his signature was on the letter — 13,000 copies were distributed in the riding last week in English and Chinese — he didn’t review it before it was released.

“Well, yeah, so I saw it afterwards. But, you know, I was up north, and I saw what was in . . . what was being reported in media, I wasn’t comfortable, it didn’t reflect my views. But ultimately, I’m owning it,” the Tory leader said, noting he was at a PC caucus retreat in Kenora when it was drafted.

Compounding the confusion is that Brown’s position on sex education has evolved over time.

He won the Conservative leadership in May 2015 with the backing of social conservatives who opposed the curriculum, and frequently criticizes the Liberals for not doing enough consultation with parents.

But the rookie leader also led a large delegation of Tories in the Pride parade and has spoken out in favour of gay, lesbian and transgender rights.

Sources told the Star that the Aug. 24 letter — promising that a PC government would “scrap” the curriculum if elected in 2018 — was shared with Conservatives at Queen’s Park on Friday by Brown’s office.

That suggests some in his inner circle were aware of the missive on Ontario PC Party letterhead.

Brown acknowledged on Metro Morning that “in Scarborough-Rouge River there is significant opposition to the sex education curriculum” Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government introduced last year.

“Many of the campaigns activists there felt this was . . . a hot issue at the doors. They wanted to campaign on it. Ultimately, they went further than I was comfortable with and hence why I wanted to come out to clarify,” he said.

On Sunday, Brown convened an emergency conference call with Tory MPPs and Ontario PC Party president Rick Dykstra to assess the political damage.

Conservative sources said those on the call expressed fear the fallout over the flip-flop could linger long after Thursday’s vote.

Former Tory leader Tim Hudak, who is retiring as MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook next month, warned that the “risk here is we look opportunistic if you look like you’re saying something to score votes in the byelection then changing your mind.”

“Be clear. Tell . . . where you stand. Move on. This took far too long. I got all kinds of different information. So here I’m on your show (and) I’ve got a totally different response than I had earlier on,” Hudak told Newstalk 1010’s John Moore.

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Other Conservatives privately shared Hudak’s concern that the screw-up could have consequences far beyond the byelection.

“We should be talking about Liberal scandals and here we are discussing sex-ed again?” fumed one incredulous Tory.

Wynne last year implemented the changes, the first update since 1998, to reflect societal and technological changes in an era of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.

The new curriculum includes Grade 3 students learning about same-sex relationships, Grade 6 pupils being told about masturbation and “gender expression,” and those in Grade 7 being alerted to the dangers of sexting.

Some social conservatives — including Charles McVety, a prominent evangelist who supported Brown’s 2015 leadership bid but now accuses the Tory leader of being “deceitful” — oppose the modernization.

They argue that such teachings undermine their religious values.

The kerfuffle comes as voters are set to pick a successor to former Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon, who quit in March.

Councillor Raymond Cho is the PC candidate. He is up against Liberal Piragal Thiru, a York Region transportation planner, and NDP school trustee Neethan Shan.

International Trade Minister Michael Chan said Brown owes it to the many non-English-speaking residents of Scarborough-Rouge River to clear up the confusion his letter caused.

“I want to remind Patrick Brown that his English letter to the Toronto Star will not be read by the thousands of people in Scarborough-Rouge River who received translated copies of his promise at their doorstep,” said Chan.

“If this letter was translated into other languages, how are recipients going to learn about his complete flip-flop? This riding has a huge majority of voters who don’t speak English as their first language. If he does nothing to address this he is willingly misleading voters in this byelection.”

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