With only minutes to spare before the deadline to run for elected office in October, former PC leader Patrick Brown put in his name for mayor of Brampton.

It was an unexpected move that came as a response to Premier Doug Ford’s decision to cancel elections for regional chairs in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka in October.

Patrick Brown, who had signed up to take part in Peel’s first election for chair earlier this month, said he was forced to make the last-minute jump to the mayoral race after hearing the news late Thursday night.

“I think everyone was shocked the government took this dramatic move. I don’t think anyone could have predicted an election would be cancelled midway through,” he said, while standing in line to register for mayor. “My preference is always democracy and public participation over appointment, he said, adding that he’s been pushing for Peel to get a fair deal from the province, especially for infrastructure, health care and finding ways to make the region safer, since he registered to run earlier this month.

For the first time this year, residents of Peel and York regions were going to join their counterparts in Halton and Durham regions, who had already successfully ventured years ago into the democratic world of voting for their regional chair. Regional councils are made up of regional councillors elected in a general election, and the mayors of the municipalities. For years, it has been up to these elected officials to appoint a chair.

But in 2016, the province to give voters the right to vote for the position. The chair’s job is akin to being the CEO of the municipality, and includes decision-making power on issues such as tax increases, the police budget, and balancing the billion-dollar budgets. It also comes with a hefty salary of over $200,000.

According to sources, after news broke that Ford was derailing his hopes of running for Peel Region chair, Brown’s team huddled and determined that taking on Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey was the best course.

Brown said he spoke with former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion and members of the Bill Davis family before making his decision.

Brown said he didn’t want to speculate on Ford’s intentions on cancelling the regional elections — or if it had anything to do with him. “I’m not going to draw any conclusions,” he said.

Brown said he has long-standing ties to Brampton, and owns a residence in the city. His provincial Progressive Conservative leadership campaign was based there and his father has practised law for over 40 years in the city. He said he’s returned to practising law in the city since he left the PC party.

In a statement, Jeffery said she welcomed Brown into the race, but questioned if he would be good for the city.

“While I welcome Mr. Brown’s entry into the race I would like to bring to the attention of Brampton voters that the ink barely dried on his lease before he decided to seek our city’s highest office,” said Jeffery. “We need stable, strong leadership and an ability to work with all levels of government, especially Queen’s Park. We don’t need chaos and someone who will continue fighting old political battles which will harm Brampton in the long run.”

Current York chair Wayne Emmerson, who just announced this week that he was withdrawing his nomination for regional chair, said that if the position is appointed, he plans to run again.

“I have always told council that if the election was by council, I would stay on,” he said. “If it was an election by the public, I wouldn’t.”

He said that York regional council has repeatedly voted in “favour of maintaining the current approach of having regional council appoint the new chair.” He added that Ford’s decision does not eliminate the position of chair, but merely keeps the position an appointed one.

He also said the position is technically open to anyone who lives in the region, as long as they have support from two members of regional council.

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But former Liberal MPP Reza Moridi, who pushed for the legislation years ago to make the York chair an elected position, said Ford has “taken democracy back from the regions.”

He said previously the appointment process is done with little transparency, with no public postings of the job, and is not done in a public way. “They basically appoint their friends ... it’s very undemocratic.”

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