Garfield Dunlop, who gave up his seat for Patrick Brown, has been caught up in the scandal that led to Brown’s ouster as leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives last week.
Dunlop, who served as MPP for Simcoe North from 1999 until he stepped aside in 2015 to allow Brown to run in a byelection in the riding, was fired Sunday. Dunlop had served as an advisor to Brown.
The party’s executive director, Bob Stanley, was also fired in what many politicos are terming a “bloody Sunday” for the party. Late Sunday night, the party’s president, Rick Dykstra, resigned after Maclean's magazine reported sexual assault accusations had been levied against him.
It’s been a tumultuous few days for the party. Brown stepped down as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party early Thursday morning, hours after news broke that two women had accused him of sexual misconduct.
On Friday, Vic Fedeli was named the party’s interim leader and, soon after, the party decided they would have a leadership convention before the end of March to determine who would lead the party heading into the June election.
Fedeli announced the changes – including the firing of Dunlop and Stanley – on Sunday. But it was his chief of staff, Alykhan Velshi, who recommended the moves.
“With any change in leadership comes a need for reorganization. While reorganizations are always difficult, they are also sometimes necessary,” Velshi said in an internal memo. “I want to be very clear that these decisions followed recommendations I made to the leader when he asked me to become his chief of staff on Friday evening.”
On Wednesday night, Velshi resigned as Brown’s chief of staff after Brown refused to heed his advice and resign. “At no point did (Fedeli’s) campaign team attempt to influence or interfere in those decisions. Responsibility for any recommendation is mine alone,” Velshi said.
Dunlop did not immediately return calls to OrilliaMatters.
