LONDON—PC Leader Doug Ford took new questions about the mounting controversies his party faces during a campaign stop Friday morning in London.He said the Progressive Conservative party is conducting an “internal investigation” after he attended a fundraiser — in violation of new campaign rules — after being misled about the event, a violation first reported by the Star.As for the alleged data breach at Hwy. 407 that led a Brampton East PC candidate to resign — and Ford’s opponents to request Elections Ontario investigate — he said “as soon as we found out about it, we acted immediately — the candidate is no longer with us, we replaced the candidate and you are going to have to talk to the 407.”“But let’s make no mistake about it: We take Elections Ontario seriously. It was very serious and we won’t tolerate anything like that in our campaign.”He said, however, that it’s “up to the 407” to call police.On Friday, York Regional Police said officers are investigating.“We did receive a request from the 407 and the York Regional Police`s major fraud unit is in the early stages of the investigation,” Const. Marina Orlovski said Friday.While there have been media reports that a number of candidates may have accessed the data — which the 407 has said included the names, addresses and phone numbers of 60,000 customers who use the toll highway — Ford said “as far as we know that was the only riding; we acted immediately.”Rival parties wrote to Elections Ontario Thursday, with the NDP urging an immediate investigation into any possible data breaches, and the Liberals asking for a probe of the April 29 fundraiser, which donors paid $250 to attend.Ford said Friday that he stayed at the fundraiser for “an hour, maybe an hour and a bit.”“We dismissed (the organizer)” after learning attendees paid to be there. I ...
|
