OTTAWA – Two Ontario lawmakers changed allegiance in the Conservative leadership race on Tuesday as growing divisions prompted them to give their support from Patrick Brown to Pierre Poalievre in the name of party unity.
Flamborough-Glanbrook MP Dan Muys and Dufferin-Caledon MP Kyle Siebback had previously signaled their support for the mayor of Brampton in March, but now say Poliever is the candidate who can bring the party together.
“Let’s put the divide aside, unite our movement behind # Pierre4PM,” Seeback wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
Mues followed shortly after, backing Seeback’s mood.
“I am increasingly concerned about the division,” Moyes wrote on Twitter about the party’s race for leadership. “Let’s unite behind Pierre Poalievre.”
Party unity has been a growing concern for Conservative believers since the capricious race for leadership began, and has only intensified as rhetoric from various camps has become less forgiving.
Brown, Poalivr, Jean Charest, Leslin Lewis, Roman Baber and Scott Aichison are expected to run in the first ballot in the autumn.
Brown now enjoys less favor from the group’s members than most of his opponents, and the loss of two lawmakers means there are only two on his side, including campaign co-chair Michelle Rempel Garner.
A spokesman for Brown Chisholm Potie told the Canadian Press late Tuesday that he liked the campaign and said that the lost approvals were two votes that would compensate “elsewhere”.
“There is a strange lack of confidence coming from the Poilievre camp with their over-attacks, which tells me that not everything is sweet and light there,” Pottier said in an email.
Seabeck told reporters in March that he supported Brown in part because of his outspoken opposition to Quebec’s secularism law, which bans religious symbols for government officials.
“There are a lot of cultural communities that take things like Bill 21 very seriously, and I think Patrick will be the one to push for that and be a great leader,” he said in March.
He also said he found Brown attractive in the Greater Toronto area, where conservatives are trying to increase support.
Seeback and Muys did not immediately respond to requests for further comment on their decision to change camp.
Several candidates say they are the only ones who can unite the party once the race is over and heal the divisions that erupted after the last election.
But the race could get uglier before it happens, now that the deadline to sell membership has expired and candidates are seeking to shake their opponents’ support ahead of the September vote.
Baber issued a statement Tuesday urging the party to release a preliminary voter list as soon as possible so that candidates can begin efforts to persuade their supporters in the next few months.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 7, 2022.
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