Ontario is roughly two weeks away from a writ drop, but prominent Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte Progressive Conservatives say they’re being purposely left in the dark over who the party's local candidate will be.

Several area Tories packed a section of the Original Mom’s Restaurant in Barrie’s north end April 20 to stress their concern over the lack of correspondence they’ve received from party headquarters in Toronto, leading to worries a parachute or appointed candidate will be dropped in for the upcoming provincial election.

“There’s a hate campaign down there for Patrick Brown,” PC constituency association president Bruce MacGregor said, referring to the former party leader. “Anybody associated with Patrick appears to be shunned. We have three candidates, very well qualified, who are willing to run. We can’t get the party to agree to a nomination meeting. The word is they said they’re either going to parachute or appoint someone. As an association, we’ve been very strong in voicing our opinion, with letters to the party for an open nomination. We have received no response.”

Former Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop, who filed nomination paperwork three weeks ago to run in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, has yet to receive a response from the party.

“I have never had the courtesy of one response back,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve had 35 years of politics and five elections. I consider myself a fairly decent candidate. But this is a tough situation. I won’t put my name (forward) now. If they won’t even respond to me because I’m a friend of Patrick Brown’s, I don’t think I’d want it. I’m loyal.”

The discussion came minutes after Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Alex Nuttall ended speculation he would step into provincial politics by announcing plans to run for re-election federally.

“I wanted to end any chatter,” he said. “I’m running on the federal side. I know there is much more work to be done at this level and I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure Canadians can rely on a Conservative government in 2019.”

Simcoe.com asked Nuttall about comments he made Jan. 31 in Ottawa, several days after Brown, a friend and Simcoe North MPP, resigned as party leader due to sexual misconduct allegations made by two unidentified women. Brown has repeatedly denied the accusations.

At the time, Nuttall referred to the circumstances surrounding the resignation as an “inside job” orchestrated by party “elites.” On Friday, he wouldn’t specify who he was referring to, or whether they still maintained influence in the party.

“There’s been turnover. Doug (Ford has) put his team in place and they’re doing what they’re doing,” he said.