Dude from Barrie, kind of a big deal, roots for Hounds over Otters

Patrick Brown, frontrunner in the race for the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership, was in the Sault today, stumping with Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Gartner.

Brown (shown, left, with Gartner) is a member of the federal House of Commons representing Barrie.

His bid for the provincial PC leadership is endorsed by Gartner and Wayne Gretzky.

Brown is a diehard hockey fan who helps out with the Hockey Night in Barrie fundraiser for that city's Royal Victoria Hospital.

He spins off hockey metaphors like he's Ron MacLean.

So when SooToday caught up with Brown this afternoon, in keeping with our policy of asking interview subjects about only the most pressing public policy concerns, we grilled him about the question on every Saultite's mind.

Greyhounds or Erie Otters?

"I'm definitely cheering for the Soo Greyhounds," the infinitely wise politician told us.

"I'm a big Barrie Colts fan. But now that Barrie's out, how can you not cheer for an OHL franchise that produced Wayne Gretzky? Wayne Gretzky has endorsed my campaign. He's a good friend and I know he talks pretty fondly about his time in Sault Ste. Marie.

"I'm hoping tonight the Sault has a big victory and they find a way to contain Connor McDavid."

As for politics, Brown talked to party faithful today at Gliss Steak & Seafood on Bay Street about the need to rebuild the Conservative Party of Ontario.

He said he was in Haldimand-Norfolk recently and asked the good people there for advice on how the do-over should be accomplished.

"A nine-year-old boy was the last person to raise his hand," Brown recalled.

The boy, named Carter, was wise beyond his years.

"The PC party should stop passing the puck in front of their own net," the kid said.

"If a nine-year-old boy can get it, boy, does our party need to get it!" Brown told the assembled Soopcons.

"I believe the PC party is broken. I believe the party that governed Ontario for 42 years, the party that has had so much of its history coincide with Ontario's accomplishments, I believe has let this province down."

"Whether it was the faith-based funding, whether it was the 100,000 job cuts, we've had a party run by a small select few at Queen's Park, that did not give voice to its membership."

As Brown sees it, Kathleen Wynne didn't win the last provincal election.

He thinks the Tories lost it.

All by themselves.

"I want to change the culture of the party," he said.

"We voted against the Liberals. I think, 3,000 times. We announced we were going to vote against the Liberal budget last time before it was even presented.

"My approach will be different. Rather than vote against other guys just because they're other guys, I will say there's no monopoly on a good idea. If it makes sense for Ontario, we'll vote for it regardless of where that idea originated." 

One idea that Brown doesn't like is Ontario's Green Energy Act.

Calling the legislation an "unmitigated disaster," he blamed it for giving the province the most expensive energy rates in North America.

"It is a job-killer....They've cut deals with companies in South Korea and China. They get first access to our grid.

"They call it a Green Energy Act but it's really photo-op environmentalism. Because we have such a surplus, we're turning off our pre-existing grid energy. We've mothballed hydroelectric projects here in Northern Ontario."

"I would rip up the Green Energy Act," Brown said. "It's not in the best interest of Ontario."

And what about pre-existing long-term contracts?

Algoma's wind farms, for example?

Brown, a lawyer, doesn't want to do anything that would expose the Ontario government to lawsuits.

But he argues that governments aren't bound by the same duty of fairness as private corporations.

If there's a will to get out of those contracts, there's a way, he says.

"We have bent over backwards in this province of Ontario to accomodate the wind industry. I think if we simply stop accomodating them, that will expedite their willingness to end this failed experiment." 

Only one other candidate remains in the Ontario PC leadership race besides Brown: Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott.

Brown has moved ahead by doggedly signing up new members to the party.

Last week, he got national media attention when Narendra Modi, India's rockstar-popular prime minister, showed up at one of Brown's campaign events and called him "brother."

It turned out that Brown and Modi have been friends for more than five years.

Brown says his nine trips to Northern Ontario during this campaign show he's serious about our neck of the woods.

"We've won this seat federally. There's no reason we can't win it provincially."

Sadly, the wannabe premier said he would be unable to attend tonight's Hounds versus Otters contest.

He had to catch a plane for Thunder Bay shortly after his lunchtime session in the Sault. 

(PHOTO: Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful Patrick Brown with Mike Gartner, one of only seven players in NHL history to score 700 career goals, visit Gliss Steak and Seafood at 180 Bay Street on April 23, 2015. Davd Helwig/SooToday)