By most measures these should be happy times for Patrick Brown.

The Ontario Conservative leader is riding high in the polls, his summer campaign-bus tour is operating smoothly, an experienced election team is in place and a wave of slick new ads has been released showing a smiling Brown talking earnestly and confidently into the camera.

Even better for Brown is the news this week that Premier Kathleen Wynne will testify next month in a Sudbury byelection bribery trial involving her former deputy chief of staff as well as a Liberal fundraiser. Her mere appearance will resurrect all the images of the Liberals as a scandal-ridden party.

But instead of good times, this is Brown’s summer of discontent.

Indeed, the Tory leader is under so much criticism from within his own party that what once looked like an easy path to a huge victory in the June 7, 2018, provincial election now seems a bit rocky.

In the span of just a few weeks, Brown has been at the centre of numerous nasty party nomination fights with charges of “thuggery and political chaos” aimed at Brown-appointed party bosses, has seen three entire riding association executive teams resign en masse, has had to apologize publicly to one ousted candidate, has been the target of tough ads from labour unions, has come under increasingly negative media scrutiny, has seen the emergence of small fringe parties that will attract some right-wing voters and has remained open to charges of being “the man without a plan” for his lack of detailed policies on major issues such as education and health care.

What’s worse is that the Liberals may be starting to close the gap on him, according to at least one recent poll.

Many of the internal feuds centre on nomination battles. In ridings such as Scarborough Centre, Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas and Ottawa West-Nepean, charges of Brown’s favoured candidates winning through dirty tricks are rampant.

In the Hamilton riding, second-place finisher Vikram Singh is taking the party to court, alleging he was cheated out of victory. The case will be heard in early August.

Party activists are particularly incensed by a court document filed by Tory party president Rick Dykstra that seems to confirm their fears that Brown is running roughshod over local riding nominations. “The Nomination Meeting is not determinative of who will ultimately be listed on the ballot as the PC Party candidate in a general election,” Dykstra wrote in an affidavit filed in the Hamilton case.

In Scarborough Centre, former Harris-era cabinet minister Marilyn Mushinski was so angry at the actions of Brown’s loyalists that she questions his leadership abilities. The June 26 nomination meeting became so heated that police were called to maintain control.

“Right now, because I’ve just got this overwhelming sense of betrayal by my own party, I think it would be an absolute disaster if Patrick Brown became the next premier of the province,” Mushinski said two weeks ago on CBC radio. “If he’s going to treat his own grassroots, his own party, in such a cavalier and arrogant manner, how would he ever behave as the premier of this province? I shudder to think.”

In the Ottawa West-Nepean riding, Karma Macgregor, the mother of a key Brown adviser, won the nomination in a contest where critics claim there were more votes cast than voters.

Former senator Marjory LeBreton, one of the most influential Tories in the region, voiced her frustration in an opinion article in the Ottawa Citizen. “I am sad to say that over all the years, I have never seen anything so blatantly undemocratic as what occurred in Ottawa West Nepean on May 6, 2017,” she wrote.

Adding to Brown’s woes is the rise of anti-Brown fringe groups, including the Trillium Party, which recruited MPP Jack MacLaren after Brown kicked him out of the Tory party. There is also talk of a pro-life Ontario Alliance Party being formed.

Another group, called “I’m Out,” is spearheaded by Carlos Naldinho, an Ottawa-area resident who hopes to see a minority government elected, which would force a Tory leadership review. “This will allow the party to remove the cancer that currently makes it impossible for any thinking conservative to support it,” he said in an interview with the Newmarket Era.

All of this raises questions about Brown’s political smarts and his ability to govern his own party, let alone the province.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Still, he’s expected to win the 2018 election given how widely Wynne is disliked. But that could change quickly unless he gains control — and the respect — of his own party.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

Read more about: