Patrick Brown, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, is pictured at the Ontario Legislature on April 5, 2016.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown insists the election of a 19-year-old student as the PC candidate for an upcoming byelection was not revenge from social conservatives for his flip-flop on Ontario's sex education curriculum.
Brock University student Sam Oosterhoff defeated PC Party president Rick Dykstra and regional councillor Tony Quirk for the nomination in Niagara-West Glanbrook, which was vacated when former PC leader Tim Hudak resigned.
Brown says Oosterhoff's nomination for the Nov. 17 byelection was "absolutely not" an anti-establishment vote, or payback from supporters angered by his change of position on the sex ed update passed by the Liberal government.
He says Oosterhoff backs the party's decision to support the sex ed curriculum, an issue that caused Brown grief in a Scarborough byelection last month after a letter was sent to voters saying a PC government would scrap the changes.
Brown later disavowed the letter and said it should not have been sent out.
Oosterhoff has not made himself available for media interviews since winning the Tory nomination last Saturday, but had been critical of the sex ed curriculum on his campaign website.