OTTAWA — Doug Ford, the brother of the former Toronto mayor who confessed to crack cocaine use and public intoxication, was narrowly elected on Saturday as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives, the opposition party.

Mr. Ford has embraced the same populist, right-of-center approach to politics as his brother Rob Ford, who died two years ago after treatment for a rare form of cancer. After the brother became mayor in 2010, Mr. Ford successfully campaigned to take his former seat on the Toronto City Council.

But the two men diverged in many other ways. Frustrated by political life, Mr. Ford left his only elected post after one four-year term and an unsuccessful bid to succeed the brother as mayor. Mr. Ford mostly ran the label business that had been founded by their father, also named Doug, who was a Progressive Conservative member of Ontario’s legislature.

There have never been any suggestions of drug or excessive alcohol use by Mr. Ford. The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, has reported that he sold hashish for several years during the 1980s, but Mr. Ford has denied that report.