Guelph’s Ontario PC riding association is in a chicken-and-egg situation, in which they need to raise money to pay for the upcoming provincial election, but are finding it difficult to raise that money with no local candidate.
Robert Coole, president of the Guelph riding association for the Ontario PC party, said the party is moving forward after the recent loss of its leader and he hopes to have a candidate for the June provincial election to stand in Guelph within six weeks.
The Ontario PC’s will hold a leadership contest by March 31.
Coole notes that many supporters are waiting to see who the local candidate is before opening their wallets.
“If we had a candidate it would be a lot easier, because people want to know — you’re not going to buy a car without seeing it,” said Coole. “They want to see a candidate before they donate money.”
Coole said former party leader Patrick Brown did a good job bringing in more memberships and donations than any before him.
Brown stepped down as leader after three of his senior staff left amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
“He did a great job of what he was supposed to do. That’s a big job,” he said.
Coole quipped that he won’t be ‘going to sleep anymore’ after Brown resigned at 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning and party prsident Rick Dykstra resigned Sunday evening.
“I had already retired for the evening and had turned off the news,” said Coole.
The party will move on, said Coole.
On Monday, former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford announced he was running for the party leadership.
Currently, North Bay MPP Vic Fedeli is acting as interim leader.
Mike Schriener, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, is the only local candidate currently in the running for the upcoming provincial election, scheduled on or before June 7.
Reached by email recently, local Liberal riding association president Jean Stevens their candidate search committee is ‘continuing to have active conversations with interested members of the Guelph community.
The local NDP riding association did not return the most recent request for comment.
Geoff Krauter, co-chair of the local NDP Election Preparedness Committee, said by email in November that the party’s nomination process was proceeding apace.
The local PC riding association has a couple of applications for people looking to run locally, said Coole. The prospective candidates are facing a meticulous vetting process.
“We have a very specific process that we follow,” said Coole. “I’m a stickler for details.”
He added, “hopefully we will have a candidate to announce — I don’t want to say soon, but hopefully before the leadership election.”
