Why Caroline Mulroney must be removed fom the PC leadership race...

In poltics and in other arenas even the appearance of a conflict can cause serious problems.  And with the way in which Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party is undergoing a leadership race, the PCs should not even be allowing Caroline Mulroney to run for the job.   

Not now certainly, although perhaps some time in the future once the entire Patrick Brown affair has been settled, including the role of her brother's employer in bringing about the outster of the Barrie MPP.

Did the fact that Ben Mulroney is employed by the same Bell Media whose news orginization destroyed Patrick Brown's career and reputation have any influence on how or why the story was reported?  I'm not the only one asking the question, here's a pic that's making the rounds in social media.  

The inference in the above photo is clear.  It suggests that CTV fabricated a story to ensure that Patrick Brown would be removed as leader.  I don't know if that's true or not, but given the emerging facts, CTV's journalistic ethics are certainly being questioned by many people.  

What do we know?  

We know that CTV 's Rachel Aiello had a relationship with the anonymous constituency worker who accused Brown of climbing on top of her and kissing her.  We now also know that Patrick Brown is claming that the other accuser was a housemate of a CTV reporter.  These are matters that need to be investigated.

Mr. Brown also claims that the account given by the woman who says he took her to a second storey bedroom, closed the door and demanded oral sex, is factually impossible.  He asserts in interviews with the National Post and Post Media that he lived in a one storey apartment flat in a subdivided duplex that was open concept with no bedroom door to close at the time of the alleged misconduct.  These facts are reportedly corraborated by a real estate agent.

Obviously there needs to be a thorough investigation.  At minimum it appears that the rush to judgement of the former PC Leader may have been premature.  There are even calls by some to have Brown reinstated as leader of the party, however the only way I could see that happening is in an alternative universe, even if he never in fact formally resigned his position.

One interesting tidbit is that no other women have come foward to accuse Brown of misconduct.  With Weinstein, Spacey, Laurer, Hehr etc....the initial reports opened the floodgates and led others to come forward.  Steve Paikin has stood accused of sexual misconduct, but his defenders cite the fact that no other women have come forward as reason for giving him a presumption of innocence.  Why is Patrick Brown not being afforded the same presumption?

But just as Brown can no longer lead the Progressive Conservatives, Caroline Mulroney should no longer be able to run for the party's top job until a thorough investigation of CTV's journalistic ethics is conducted.  Ben Mulroney's status as a media star of the same orginization whose news division made his sister's run at the leadership possible, it leaves a very bad smell.

And I write this as an interested party given that I am now, and for the first time in my life, a member of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party.  I parted with the $10 membership fee in order to cast my vote for Christine Elliot.  I'm not 100% certain I will vote PC in the coming provincial election, but with Elliot at the helm of the party I will be leaning decidedly in that direction.  If its Doug Ford or Christine Mulroney they have no chance of getting my X beside a PC candidate's name.

Would Caroline Mulroney make an effective leader and/or Premier?  Its possible, so might have Patrick Brown, we'll never know.  Ontario Conservatives need to clean up this mess before the June election and do a thorough investigation to make sure that democracy in this province wasn't hijacked to give Brian Mulroney's daughter a shot at Ontario's most senior political post.