Patrick Brown (politician)

Patrick Brown MPP
Leader of the Opposition in Ontario
Incumbent
Assumed office September 14, 2015
Preceded by	Jim Wilson
Leader of the Ontario PC Party
Incumbent
Assumed office May 9, 2015
Preceded by	Jim Wilson (interim)
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Simcoe North
Incumbent
Assumed office September 3, 2015
Preceded by	Garfield Dunlop
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Barrie
In office January 23, 2006 – May 13, 2015
Preceded by	Aileen Carroll
Succeeded by	Riding Abolished
Personal details
Born	Patrick Walter Brown (1978-05-26) May 26, 1978 Toronto, Ontario
Political party	Provincial: Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (2015-Present) Federal: Conservative Party of Canada (2003-2015)
Relations	Joe Tascona (uncle)
Residence	Barrie, Ontario
Alma mater	University of Windsor (LL.B.) University of Toronto (B.A.)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Patrick Walter Brown, MPP (born May 26, 1978) is a Canadian politician who is the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and Ontario's Leader of the Official Opposition. Brown was a federal Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2006 to 2015 representing the riding of Barrie. In May 2015, Brown was elected leader of the Ontario PC Party, and stepped down as MP. He was elected Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Simcoe North in a provincial by-election on September 3, 2015. Before being elected to federal office, Brown worked as a lawyer.

Background

Brown is the nephew of Joe Tascona, a Barrie Progressive Conservative MPP in the Mike Harris government. Additionally, Brown is the son of Edmond, a lawyer and former New Democratic Party candidate. He graduated from St. Michael's College School, a private Catholic school in Toronto.^[1] He studied political science at the University of Toronto, and graduated with a law degree from the University of Windsor. During his second year at law school, he was one of 10 recipients of the prestigious As Prime Minister Awards. He also worked for Magna International in their legal department over a period of four years.

Brown served two terms as President of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation (PCYF),^[2] a position he held from 1998 to 2002. He also served on the executive of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, as a Vice President. As PCYF President, Brown was one of the early supporters of a united right and was criticized for his decision to support a united right from party leader Joe Clark and Member of Parliament Scott Brison. Nonetheless, Brown was later re-elected as PCYF president with 81 percent of the vote against Jonathan Frate of Manitoba.

Brown was the Deputy Chairman of the International Young Democrat Union (IYDU). He has also represented Canada on a number of international assistance projects hosted by the IYDU.

Politics

Political views

Brown characterizes himself as a 'pragmatic conservative' and has noted his limited support from labour unions.

During his Ontario PC Party leadership campaign, Brown was noted for his social conservatism,^[3][4] and his criticism of Ontario's sex education in schools.^[5] However, since his victory he has been successful in pushing the Ontario PC Party towards the "political centre." ^[6] Patrick Brown would go on to become the first Ontario PC Leader to march in the Toronto Pride Parade.^[7] At his first Ontario PC Convention as Leader, Brown boldly affirmed his belief in anthropogenic climate change and announced his support for a revenue-neutral price on carbon.^[8]

His new progressivism stands in contrast to his voting record from a decade ago. In December 2006, as an MP, Brown voted to repeal same-sex marriage in Canada.^[3][9] Brown also voted against several bills between 2011 and 2013, which were aimed at amending the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender expression and identity, and the Criminal Code, to prevent discrimination.^[10] On September 26, 2012, Brown voted in favour of Stephen Woodworth's private member's bill to create a special committee to examine the legal definition of when a fetus becomes a human being,^[11] which many argued would reopen the abortion debate in Canada. Brown did so, even though then Prime Minister Stephen Harper voted against the bill and said that Canadians did not want to reopen the abortion debate.^[12][13] Since becoming Ontario's Progressive Conservative party leader, Brown has stated that it's not a provincial issue, and doesn't intend to revisit it in the Ontario Legislature.^[14]

Patrick Brown's first Private Member's Bill in the Ontario Legislature, Bill 151 the Estate Administration Tax Abolition Act, was an attempt to eliminate the death tax.^[15] His bill was voted down at Second Reading by the Liberal Government's majority.

His critics have called him 'policy-lite' since he made no policy statements during the Progressive Conservative leadership campaign.^[16] Since winning the leadership race, he has focused his plan on four main issues which he suggests will lead to a more "prosperous province"; less red tape, improved transportation corridors, affordable energy, and addressing Ontario's growing skills gap.^[17]

Municipal politics

Brown was elected to the Barrie City Council in 2000 at age 22, and was re-elected in 2003.^[2]

Brown served on various Committees, including the Budget Committee. Brown's primary focus while on council was health care, despite it being a provincial responsibility. In response to a shortage of doctors, Brown founded the Physician Recruitment Task Force with the Royal Victoria Hospital to help attract more doctors to Barrie.^[18]

Federal politics

In the 2004 federal election, Brown ran as the Conservative Party candidate in the riding of Barrie. He lost to incumbent Aileen Carroll by 1,295 votes.^[19] Brown ran again in 2006 this time defeating Carroll by 1,523 votes.^[20] He was re-elected in the 2008 election by 15,295 votes over Liberal candidate Rick Jones.^[21]

In November 2010, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed concern about how Patrick Brown used his Canadian House of Commons account. He sent flyers to his riding which included a letter of support and a flyer from Barrie City Councillor Michael Prowse. Brown used his House of Commons account to pay for the mailing because Michael Prowse could not afford to send the flyer out himself.^[22]

In the 2011 election, Brown was elected to his third term in office.^[23]

On September 28, 2014, he announced his intention to run in the 2015 Ontario party leadership election. He registered as a leadership candidate on November 20, 2014. He said that, unlike the other candidates, he was not involved in the four consecutive losses that have kept the Ontario PCs out of power since 2003.^[24] At the time of his jump to provincial politics, he chaired the Conservative Party of Canada's Greater Toronto Area caucus and the Canada-India Parliamentary Association.^[2]

Provincial politics

In September 2014, Brown announced his intention to run in the contest to replace PC Party Leader, Tim Hudak. From the outset of his campaign, Brown positioned himself as an outsider, challenging the leadership of the PC Party, which had been defeated in the last four provincial elections. In the most recent election campaign, in 2014, the party election platform included a commitment to "cut 100,000 government jobs". As the only one of the original five leadership candidates who was not a member of the Ontario legislature, Brown claimed not to have been involved in the promise, which he considered "ill-advised",^[24][25] despite attending the announcement in his home riding.^[26] Brown's rivals attempted to use this same lack of previous involvement in provincial politics as an argument against his leadership bid.^[27][28]

In March, Brown emerged as the front-runner in the leadership election, having sold over 40,000 of the 70,000 memberships in the party.^{[29][30][31][32]} During the campaign, Brown was successful in bringing many new members to the party. The past four leadership contests had been won by those who sold the most memberships.^[33]

Brown was endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition and the Ontario Landowners Association.^[34][35] During Brown's leadership bid both special interest groups actively supported him by selling Ontario PC Party memberships amongst their members.^[36][37]

Brown was criticized by his rivals and in the media for not resigning his federal seat during the leadership campaign.^[38] Brown was frequently absent from the House of Commons for votes during the leadership campaign and had one of the worst voting attendance records in the Conservative Party caucus and of any MP between September to December 2014.^[39] A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that members aren't expected to step down but are expected to "continue to fulfill their parliamentary responsibilities, including membership on committees and attendance at votes."^[40]

The campaign started with five candidates including Vic Fedeli, Lisa MacLeod, and Monte McNaughton. All three withdrew in early 2015 citing membership recruitment or financial reasons. On May 9, 2015, Brown was elected leader, defeating his only remaining opponent, Christine Elliott, winning with 61.8% of the membership vote.^[41][42]

Brown, who resigned his seat in the House of Commons on May 13, 2015, days after winning the provincial leadership, led the Progressive Conservative party from outside the legislature during most of the summer.^[43] On July 22, 2015, Garfield Dunlop agreed to step down as MPP for Simcoe North on August 1 in order to open up a seat for Brown. A provincial by-election, called for September 3, 2015, was won by Brown.^[44][45][46]

Electoral record

References

External links

• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History

• Patrick Brown – Parliament of Canada biography
• Speeches, votes and activity at OpenParliament.ca

Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its antecedents
Liberal-Conservative (1867–73)	Macdonald Cameron
Conservative (1873–1942)	Cameron Meredith (Marter) Whitney Hearst Ferguson Henry Rowe Drew
Progressive Conservative (1942–present)	Drew (Kennedy) Frost Robarts Davis Miller Grossman (Brandt) Harris Eves (Runciman) Tory (Runciman) Hudak (Wilson) Brown
Interim leaders are in parentheses.