Patrick Brown asks PC Party of Ontario to release the numbers

Calls on other campaigns to do the same

BRAMPTON, ON, March 4, 2015 /CNW/ - Patrick Brown, M.P., candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario has asked PC Party Headquarters to release the number of memberships sold by his campaign, and others.  He invited the other campaigns to do the same.

"I'm thrilled with our success bringing over 40,000 new people into the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario," said Brown.  "I'm happy to share our results with the public and I have asked PC Party HQ to release the membership sales figures from our campaign and I invite Christine and Monte to join me in this request for transparency." said Brown.

Robert Stanley, Brown's Campaign Manager, is confident the 40,410 number released by the campaign on Saturday is a conservative minimum number.

34,410 memberships were submitted in a bulk submission to Party HQ this past Saturday. In addition, more than 6,000 memberships which include memberships sold by campaign organizers submitted directly to Party HQ through the local riding associations and memberships purchased by supporters directly from the PC Party of Ontario website.

"I am absolutely confident we've sold over 40,410 new memberships," said Stanley.  "In fact, I expect the number is many thousands more.  But, I'm a conservative and I prefer to assume the low range when it comes to sales.  That's what we've done."

Stanley also addressed reports that Brown's memberships are not broadly distributed across the province, saying "This isn't my first leadership campaign.  We have a strong team, in every riding of the province, and I'm very happy with the wide distribution of our sales."

Stanley also pointed out he expects to make further gains by winning support from pre-existing PC Party members who are not reflected in the new member numbers.

"This is great news," said Brown.  "I'm proud of the hard work of my team and our success bringing over 40,000 new people into our Party, and I'm happy to share it with the public.  Christine and Monte have been working hard with their teams too, and I know they're rightfully proud of their results.  No matter how you slice it, together we've increased the size of our Party more than sevenfold in three months.  That's great for our Party, it's great for Ontario and it's great for democracy."

About Patrick Brown
Patrick Brown has been elected three times as Conservative Member of Parliament for Barrie.  Patrick's work with new Canadian communities in the GTA and 20-years' experience in the Conservative movement make him uniquely able to build the broad, winning coalition the PC Party of Ontario needs to win. For more information, please visit: www.VotePatrickBrown.ca    

SOURCE Patrick Brown for the Win

Tamara Macgregor, Director of Communications, Tel: [phone], [email protected]