TORONTO – Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Christine Elliott now says she signed up 34,000 new party members.
That puts her behind the 40,000 MP Patrick Brown says he sold, but ahead of the 20,000 memberships London-area MPP Monte McNaughton claims – though a party source has put his figure closer to 6,000.
Elliott did not release her numbers on Saturday, like the other two candidates, saying she wanted to wait for official figures – which the party says are expected to be made public today.
Every PC member can vote for the new leader May 3 and 7, but the votes will be weighted so each of the 107 ridings gets 100 points, which means where the memberships were sold is almost as important as how many.
In a statement Elliott says the memberships she sold are distributed evenly across the province.
Earlier today, Elliott released her economic plan, saying she would cut the corporate tax rate from 11.5 per cent to 10 per cent over three years.
“Under the Liberals’ failed leadership, Ontario has lost its status as Canada’s leading economy,” she said at a news conference. “We must reverse the decline. We must encourage employers to invest and grow so that more Ontarians can find meaningful work.”
Elliott said she would provide incentives to students and employers to get more young people into skilled trades, including making apprentices eligible for student loans. She also vowed to create a fund to support development of manufacturing technology and divest assets that don’t serve core functions of government.
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