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Photo by Chris Young/The Canadian Press

Dhillon said one of his candidate clients provided him the names, addresses and phone numbers, and he didn’t know they originated from the 407 until reported in the media. However, he said that client passed on the data to at least one other current PC candidate.

“I didn’t do anything illegal in any campaign,” Dhillon, who quit the party earlier this year, said in an interview with the National Post. “That’s me. I’m not a criminal.”

He also noted there are other professional organizers who hire themselves out to party candidates in the suburbs west of Toronto, and suggested he was being singled out because of his Sikh background.

“You guys want to put me under the bus because I’m a Punjabi guy, I’m a brown, that’s why?” he said. “All these white guys running campaigns. Some win, some lose. Why only me?”

Still, Dhillon said he has seen evidence of questionable behaviour by others. He said many Conservative candidates paid out of their own pocket for new members, who then voted for them at nomination meetings, though party rules require members to cover their own $10 fee. Signing up new members is a crucial part of winning party nominations.

You guys want to put me under the bus because I’m a Punjabi guy, I’m a brown, that’s why? All these white guys running campaigns. Some win, some lose. Why only me?

He also said he believes Ford when he says he doesn’t know Dhillon, though the two did briefly meet twice. The encounters were not memorable, Dhillon suggested.

As first detailed by the Post in early April, several Conservative sources say Dhillon worked for candidates in a number of nomination campaigns over the past year and a half that ended in heated disputes, with allegations of membership fraud and vote stuffing. Sources said they saw him ushering in large numbers of new members to the meetings.