Patrick Brown (Canadian politician)
Patrick Walter Brown (born May 26, 1978) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 51st and current mayor of Brampton since 2018. He served as leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario and leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party from 2015 to 2018. Brown also represented the riding Barrie in the House of Commons as a Conservative from 2006 to 2015.
Patrick Brown
- Harkirat Singh
Jim Wilson (interim)
Vic Fedeli (interim)
Riding dissolved
Conservative
Progressive Conservative (until 2018)
2
Joe Tascona (uncle)
- Politician
- lawyer
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Brown entered politics when he won a seat on the Barrie City Council in 2000. He later joined the Conservative Party and became a member of Parliament (MP) in 2006. He represented Barrie in the House of Commons until 2015, when he was elected as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party and resigned his seat in Parliament. Brown was subsequently elected to represent Simcoe North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and became the leader of the Opposition. He served as leader until 2018, when he was expelled from the caucus. He later returned to municipal politics and was elected mayor of Brampton.
In 2022, Brown contested for the federal Conservative leadership election, but was disqualified following claims his campaign violated the Canada Elections Act. He was subsequently re-elected as mayor of Brampton.[5]
Early life and career[edit]
Brown was born in Toronto, to Judy (née Tascona) and lawyer Edmond Brown. His father moved to Canada from the British Isles and worked as a criminal lawyer. Edmond was a former federal New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Davenport in 1979 and 1980. His mother, Judy, is of partial Italian descent, and an educator (teacher and principal) from Barrie. He was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.[6]
He graduated from St. Michael's College School, a private Catholic school in Toronto.[7] 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 As Prime Minister Award. He worked for Magna International in their legal department for four years.
Brown served two terms as president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation (PCYF),[8] 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. Brown was later re-elected as PCYF president with 81 per cent 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.
Political career[edit]
Barrie City Council[edit]
Brown was elected to the Barrie City Council in 2000 at age 22, and was re-elected in 2003.[8] He 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.[9]
Member of Parliament (2006–2015)[edit]
In the lead up to the 2004 federal election, Brown put his name forward as a candidate for the Conservative Party nomination race for the riding of Barrie. Brown defeated Rod Jackson and Douglas Edwards to win the party nomination in what Jackson considered a nasty race.[10] In the election, he lost to Liberal incumbent Aileen Carroll by 1,295 votes.[11] Brown ran again in 2006, this time defeating Carroll by 1,543 votes.[12]
He was re-elected in the 2008 election by 15,195 votes over Liberal candidate Rick Jones.[13]
In November 2010, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed concern about how Patrick Brown used his House of Commons of Canada 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.[14]
In the 2011 election, Brown was elected to his third term in office.[15] In 2012, it was reported that Brown had the highest publicly funded expenditures on public service announcement flyers with $81,159.97.[16]
In September 2014, he announced his intention to run in the 2015 Ontario PC 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.[17] 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.[8]
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