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By the new year, the lawsuit against me was dismissed as “strategic litigation against public participation.” But before I knew it, the PC party requested to appeal the verdict. This all changed when — during the course of a whirlwind PC leadership campaign — newly-elected leader Doug Ford publicly called for the appeal to be dropped and for my reinstatement into the party.

At the meeting of the PC executive following Ford’s election as leader, my membership to the party was retroactively reinstated. I was surprised, but it reminded me of the way of doing politics that Ford’s late brother, Rob, used to talk about: Never stop fighting for the little guy.

At some point in my campaigns, an old PC party friend of mine said that one of the Tory candidates couldn’t understand why I was doing what I was doing.

In their eyes, the practice of not following democratic norms as set out in a political party’s constitution was something that “happens all the time.” These were issues that needed to be heard and the party membership agreed, as the themes of corruption and the carbon tax dominated the leadership race.

I was purged from the PC party under Brown’s leadership because of my campaigns to uphold the PC party constitution and democratic governance. In a free and just society, this is something that should never be allowed to happen again.

The PC party membership has spoken. If the Tories want to win the June election, we must unite and listen to our base.

— Karahalios is a longtime conservative activist and founder of the Axe the Carbon Tax and Take Back Our PC Party campaigns

www.axethecarbontax.ca

twitter.com/axethecarbontax