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Scott Thompson: Has Patrick Brown been cleared?

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown speaks at a press conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Wednesday, January 24, 2018. Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says he "categorically'' denies "troubling allegations'' about his conduct. A visibly emotional Brown said he was made aware of the allegations earlier on Wednesday, but he did not provide details on what those allegations are. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim. Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Canadian Press

Patrick Brown is back in the race to be leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and perhaps premier.

Brown said he has been cleared, now that the allegation he dated an underage girl has turned out to be incorrect. Now the alleged victim has admitted she wasn’t underage and in high school at the time (as the original CTV exclusive report claimed) but was an adult who could enter a bar.

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So where is the story? What is the charge here?

This change of fact has turned this story from one of criminal offence, to a clumsy weekend he said/ she said between two grown-ups. The accuser tells Global News that she stands “firmly behind the truth of what I said about Patrick Brown’s conduct involving me.”

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How did we get here, from there?

Brown deserves the right to defend himself in what has become an ugly and embarrassing display of how filthy politics really is.

No wonder the average voter is disgusted in them all.

Nevertheless, we are where we are, and Brown will have a hard time proving he isn’t more of a distraction for a party that has to focus on the task at hand, beating Kathleen Wynne.

Scott Thompson hosts The Scott Thompson Show! on 900 CHML.

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