Conservative MP Alex Nuttall is slamming Ontario provincial PC party leadership — calling them power-hungry Toronto “elites” — for trying to “circumvent” the party’s grassroots by launching a sweeping review of memberships days after trying to put off a leadership race until after the provincial election.

Just before federal caucus Wednesday, Nuttall (MP for the Ontario riding Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte) said the Ontario party leadership’s latest move “seeking to expel tens of thousands of paid memberships” is being done to help “elites” seeking power — not fix problems in the party.

“I have a message for the Toronto elites, and it is this: the conservative movement should never and can never define people by their race, by their faith, by what region of the world they come from, by their first or last name — that the elites in Toronto need to stop making decisions in their own best interests to seek power, and start making decisions in the best interests of the people of Ontario,” he said.

The barb comes after news that interim leader Vic Fedeli announced he has launched an investigation into the legitimacy of tens of thousands of party memberships.

Fedeli said he plans to “root out the rot” in the party amid allegations that some memberships are fraudulent.

The party executive is currently finalizing the rules for a leadership race, but also needs to figure out how many members it actually has right now.

He said the party needs to be “strong and united,” and “not one that is turning on itself in the public daily.” He also attacked party “elites” for initially trying to hold off on having a leadership race.

“Within 48 hours of the events, we had 28 elites — whose ridings represent less than one per cent of the 200,000 members of the PC Party of Ontario — try to appoint the next premier of the party of Ontario, circumventing democracy,” Nuttall charged. “They did this without the moral authority that can only be granted by the membership.”

PC MPP Randy Hillier, surprised by the political jab from Parliament Hill, tweeted that he has “been called many things, but being a ‘Toronto elite’ is both the newest and craziest.”

I've been called many things, but being a Toronto elite is both the newest and craziest. https://t.co/FUjFEob3Sq — Randy Hillier (@randyhillier) January 31, 2018

Nuttall said he is not seeking Ontario PC leadership, and he does not have a horse in the race, “yet.”

He did not, though, take any questions from reporters, who had asked about his relationship with former PC leader Patrick Brown.

Brown stepped down last week, hours after CTV News reported explosive allegations of sexual misconduct with two young women. He denies those allegations.

Brown’s riding is Simcoe North, although started his career as a Barrie politician. He is widely known to be a powerful organizing force within the party, and had bragged in the last leadership race that he had signed up tens of thousands of new members.

Fedeli said Tuesday that he will no longer run in the leadership race to replace Brown, although had previously expressed interest.

The party has been on the rocks since the allegations against Brown came out, which was shortly followed by another top-level party resignation from party president Rick Dykstra, a former Conservative MP who Maclean’s reported had been allowed to run in the 2015 election despite facing sexual assault allegations. Dykstra’s lawyers have since complained that Maclean’s “rushed to judgement” and said Dykstra “categorically denies” the story.

News of these allegations have stirred shock and concern on Parliament Hill among Conservatives.

Headed into caucus Wednesday, Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, who said he had never previously heard of concerns about Brown or Dykstra’s behaviour, said he was concerned the party still let Dykstra run in the 2015 election while facing those allegations.

“I don’t know why the party didn’t do anything at that time,” he told reporters Wednesday.

“We have to answer these questions.”

Bernier said this kind of situation hurts the reputations of all politicians in Ottawa.

“It is not good for our party. It is not good for other parties. It is not good for the democracy. It is not good for us here in Ottawa,” he said. “It’s bad for every party.”

In another Wednesday morning scrum, Conservative MP Lisa Raitt said all that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer can do at this point is “control is what we do going forward.”

“His clear message to caucus was given last week: zero tolerance. That’s it,” she said.

“Just because something happened in the past does not mean it’s going to be the same way in the future.”

Durham Conservative MP Erin O’Toole told reporters Wednesday that he has “a lot of admiration for Mr. Fedeli, who has said he is going to get to the bottom of all the problems facing the party, including memberships.”

But he is “very concerned” about what happened with Dykstra running in 2015, and said that “shouldn’t have happened.”

“We’re hearing about this all post-election. What we need to make sure is there’s a system for vetting and dealing with these situations, even during an election,” he said. “We need a process that we’re satisfied with, because clearly we’re not satisfied with what happened during the election.”