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His teardown of the old party complete, Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown began on the weekend to build in its place something bigger, greener — and more open-concept.

Brown used the three-day Tory convention, his first as party leader, to launch an ambitious, year-long policy development process designed to cull ideas from “anyone with a computer” in Ontario.

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The enigmatic 37-year-old leader also began the task of defining himself for voters, stamping himself a pragmatist, and announcing his support for a carbon tax to combat climate change.

Noting that he was first drawn to politics because of his environmentalism, Brown called climate change a man-made threat that cannot be ignored by politicians of any stripe.

We have to do something

“We have to do something about it, and that something includes putting a price on carbon,” he told 1,600 delegates in his keynote speech Saturday night in downtown Ottawa.