SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT.—The NDP and the Liberals are calling for an Ontario Provincial Police probe of questionable Progressive Conservative candidate nominations for the June 7 election as party leader Doug Ford blames his predecessor, Patrick Brown.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne cited a news report Saturday raising new and “deeply troubling questions” about the possible political use of customer names, addresses and phone numbers allegedly stolen from the database of toll highway owner 407 ETR.

The issue first arose Wednesday when PC candidate in Brampton East, Simmer Sandhu, quit suddenly after 407 ETR, his former employer, announced it had called York Region police over an “internal theft” of information.

York’s major fraud unit is now investigating.

Sandhu said any allegations against him are “totally baseless,” but his association with Conservative operative Snover Dhillon, who has twice been convicted of fraud, has fuelled concerns.

“It is getting more and more worrisome,” New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said Saturday in the Conservative-held riding of Sault Ste. Marie.

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She called on Ford to investigate and report back before the election on whether any data was used by any PC hopefuls or candidates or passed on to the central campaign.

“The people of Ontario deserve to know.”

A story in the Globe and Mail alleged Dhillon was a driving force in busing putative supporters from the GTA to support a PC candidate for a suburban Ottawa nomination, and that fake identities were used.

“Doug Ford asserted yesterday that these concerns were limited in scope to one riding only,” Wynne said in reference to the resignation of Sandhu.

“At least seven nominated Conservative candidates are implicated according to these media reports and a cloud of suspicion hangs over many others,” the Liberal leader — who is a distant third in public opinion polls to front-runner Ford — added in a statement.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Dhillon denied doing anything untoward.

“I have done nothing wrong,” Dhillon said, emphasizing he is a political consultant who has helped many candidates over the years.

Ford said in the Muskoka hamlet of Baysville on Saturday that he does not know Dhillon, and said the man is “a pal of Patrick Brown,” the previous PC leader ousted in January.

“I was elected to be leader of this party 71 days ago ... to command and clean up a mess that I’ve cleaned up,” Ford told reporters at Lake of Bays craft brewery.

“This goes back to Patrick Brown. You want to get answers on this, Patrick Brown was the leader under this whole group of people,” he added.

“You keep mentioning this snowbird guy ... I don’t know this guy from a hole in the ground.”

But Dhillon said he has met Ford at least twice over the years.

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“He doesn’t know me that well. He’s not a ‘friend’ friend. I only know him as a political leader,” Dhillon told the Star.

“One time we met was a Ford fest barbecue at his (mother’s Etobicoke) home,” said Dhillon.

“Another time I met him last year at his boardroom at Deco,” Dhillon added, referring to the Ford family label business.

“I went there with a couple of other people to talk to him about campaigns. We met through mutual friends.”

Brown was unavailable for comment.

Horwath said Ford can’t get away with passing the buck to his predecessor.

“I have a newsflash for Mr. Ford: he’s the leader of the party. It’s now his responsibility to own up to what his party has done,” she told reporters at a downtown bakery.

“Be honest and open with the people of Ontario and let everybody know what, if anything, your team has done with any of this material.”

Wynne accused Ford of trying to sweep questionable nominations under the carpet and called on him to “fire” candidates who used Dhillon’s services in seeking their nominations.

“In February, Mr. Ford said he knew of 30 to 40 ridings where he was aware of ‘scandalous’ practices. Yet he never acted,” Wynne said, raising the possibility that names, addresses and phone numbers of 60,000 Highway 407 drivers are being used by PCs to reach voters in the election.

“Those who aspire to lead our province have an obligation to put the integrity of our electoral process ahead of partisan gain, political ambition or, indeed, any other consideration.”

The Conservatives have called foul on a handful of nomination races and held new votes, including in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas where Hamilton police have been conducting a fraud investigation.

Ford should release the “full results” of all internal party investigations into nomination practices, and disclose all party ties to Dhillon, Wynne added.

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