

The Canadian Press





TORONTO -- The Progressive Conservative party executive says members will select a new leader to replace Patrick Brown on Saturday, March 10.

A special party committee has spent the last few days drafting the rules, a timeline for the race and how much it will cost to enter the competition, which will be held just a few months before a spring general election.

Following their meeting on Wednesday night, the party said the final rules of the leadership contest would be released on Thursday.

"March the 9th is the cutoff for all the voting (and) March the 10th we will be announcing," party president Jag Badwal told reporters outside a Toronto hotel after the meeting.

He said because of a short time frame, most of the voting will be done electronically.

"We have almost 30-35 days, so that is one of the best options in front of us, so it will be mostly electronic voting."

Earlier this week Hartley Lefton, chairman of the committee, said the Tories would stick to a one-member one-vote rule, which would open up voting to the party's grassroots.

There is currently only one candidate officially in the running to replace Brown -- Toronto politician Doug Ford, brother of the city's late former mayor Rob Ford.

Vic Fedeli, who was appointed interim leader last week after Brown's departure, said he would not seek the permanent leadership in order to instead focus on internal issues ahead of the election.

Fedeli vowed Tuesday to clean up the party, "root out the rot" and ensure a fair leadership contest following the resignation of top leaders amid the sexual misconduct allegations.

The party has been in turmoil since last week when Brown resigned after vehemently denying sexual misconduct allegations reported by CTV News. The allegations have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press.