Judge rejects application to extend Tory leadership voting
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

A roller-coaster Progressive Conservative leadership contest that was triggered by a sexual impropriety scandal six weeks ago concluded with a dramatic courtroom cliffhanger.As Tories elect a new leader Saturday to succeed the discredited Patrick Brown, Ontario’s official opposition party was forced to endure a high-stakes judicial ruling that threatened to delay the election by a week.“The convention would have to rescheduled and perhaps relocated if I were to extend the voting period. The PC leadership campaign would be further postponed,” wrote Justice Todd Archibald of Ontario’s Superior Court in a decision released almost eight hours after the noon voting deadline had passed, leaving anxious Tories on the edge of their seats all day.“One more week without a leader impacts every member of the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario,” wrote Archibald, noting the “unprecedented circumstances and tight timeline” of the leadership race coming against a backdrop of a June 7 election.Opinion | Edward Keenan: Merriam-Webster green lights ‘dumpster fire’ just in time to explain the Ontario PC leadership raceOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Ontario’s Tories are facing a Trumpian moment of truth as they choose their next leaderYour 4 Ontario PC leadership candidates: A Ford, a Mulroney, an unknown and the favouriteA delay would have cost the Conservatives $250,000 in convention rescheduling and mailing expenses. Even though some 64,053 party members had already cast ballots — a record for the party — some felt disenfranchised after not receiving registration packages in the mail.Lawyer Jeffrey Radnoff submitted affidavits from six PC members unable to vote because they still needed a personal security code to do so, and court was presented with a list of more than 150 other members also shut out — including candidate Tanya Granic Allen’s campaign manager.The two sides wrangled over ...