Time to move on, support Ford, Romano says

Sault MPP Ross Romano is prepared to move on and support new Progressive Conservative Party leader Doug Ford after a marathon leadership convention which began Saturday morning in Toronto and dragged into the late hours of the evening amid demands for a recount from candidate Christine Elliott.

Ford won by a slim, 153 vote margin. 

“It speaks to the competition level of the candidates. Certainly I expected us to have a result while we were at the convention (late Saturday afternoon, as originally expected),” Romano said Sunday.

Elliott may still challenge the results in court, but Romano, who supported Elliott's leadership bid, suggests it’s time to move on.

“It’s not my place to offer Christine advice but I would say it is certainly time for our party to move forward under one leader.”

“It’s bittersweet in the sense that yes, the person who I supported was not successful in the race, there’s certainly that aspect that makes it bitter, but it’s sweet because it’s come to a conclusion, its over, we have a new leader and I’m looking forward to uniting behind that leader and focus on the primary goal of defeating Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals on June 7.”

During the leadership campaign, Romano felt Elliott would be the best voice the north could have as head of a PC government.

SooToday asked Romano if he senses Ford, a one-term Toronto city councillor, will work for northern Ontario if elected premier in the election expected on or before June 7.

“The only time I ever met Doug was when he was in the Sault (during his leadership campaign, March 3)…I know he was in the Sault during my campaign on the night of my byelection win (in June 2017) but I never met him, we never spoke.”

“We had a telephone conversation in the days leading up to his trip to the Sault and we spoke while he was in the Sault, but by that point in time I had already made my decision to join Christine’s camp.”

“(However) I was impressed by his desire to bring an approach to northern Ontario I don’t think we had seen before. He certainly campaigned on not being part of the establishment…I look forward to working with him. I do believe he has a very sincere approach to seeing the region develop.”

For Elliott, it was her third unsuccessful bid to win the party leadership, and as of Sunday, had still not conceded defeat to Ford, citing “serious irregularities with respect to this leadership race" in a statement.

"Thousands of members have been assigned to incorrect ridings (in the online voting process for party members),” Elliott stated.

"In a race this close, largely determined by geography, someone needs to stand up for these members…(intending to) "investigate the extent of this discrepancy,” Elliott added.

In a statement on behalf of the PC party Sunday, Hartley Lefton, leadership organizing committee chairman, wrote “upon an exhaustive review of this list as requested by a campaign (Elliott’s) and as permitted under the rules, the integrity of this list of electors was reconfirmed and there was no impact on the results.”

"I would like to congratulate our new Ontario PC Party Leader, Doug Ford, for his election yesterday. Doug’s election was definitive and he will now lead our party into a general election,” the PC party statement read.