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The Ontario Progressive Conservative party has massively increased its membership in the run-up to the June provincial election campaign.

While the governing Liberals currently claim 18,000 dyed-in-the wool members, the PCs have topped 200,000 – a record number of supporters, Leader Patrick Brown says.

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“Our Party has the most members today than we’ve ever had before,” Brown said in an email Friday. “The Ontario PCs are diverse, modern, inclusive and we are energized to work hard in every riding across the province in the lead-up to June 7.”

The party’s membership previously reached a high-level mark of 100,000 during the hand off between former premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, Tories say.

However, at the end of the last provincial campaign in 2014, following four consecutive campaign losses, the PC membership had dropped to about 12,000 card-carrying members.

In the three years since then, Brown grew membership support by more than 1,500%.