SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT.—The NDP and the Liberals are calling for an Ontario Provincial Police probe of questionable Progressive Conservative candidate nominations for the June 7 election as party leader Doug Ford blames his predecessor, Patrick Brown. Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne cited a news report Saturday raising new and “deeply troubling questions” about the possible political use of customer names, addresses and phone numbers allegedly stolen from the database of toll highway owner 407 ETR.The issue first arose Wednesday when PC candidate in Brampton East, Simmer Sandhu, quit suddenly after 407 ETR, his former employer, announced it had called York Region police over an “internal theft” of information.York’s major fraud unit is now investigating.Sandhu said any allegations against him are “totally baseless,” but his association with Conservative operative Snover Dhillon, who has twice been convicted of fraud, has fuelled concerns.“It is getting more and more worrisome,” New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said Saturday in the Conservative-held riding of Sault Ste. Marie.She called on Ford to investigate and report back before the election on whether any data was used by any PC hopefuls or candidates or passed on to the central campaign.“The people of Ontario deserve to know.”A story in the Globe and Mail alleged Dhillon was a driving force in busing putative supporters from the GTA to support a PC candidate for a suburban Ottawa nomination, and that fake identities were used.“Doug Ford asserted yesterday that these concerns were limited in scope to one riding only,” Wynne said in reference to the resignation of Sandhu.“At least seven nominated Conservative candidates are implicated according to these media reports and a cloud of suspicion hangs over many others,” the Liberal leader — who is a distant third in public opinion polls to front-runner Ford — ...
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