PC MPPs wear yellow tie in solidarity with Vic Fedeli

The Ontario PC party is standing behind Vic Fedeli after a new book by Patrick Brown dropped bombshell allegations against the Ontario Finance Minister.

The new book, titled Takedown: The Attempted Political Assassination of Patrick Brown, Brown claims Fedeli had also been the subject of sexual misconduct allegations.

Brown claims he received a letter from a female staffer accusing Fedeli of inappropriate behaviour.

Brown, who was still party leader at that time, said the accusations “were not anything I could picture being consistent with Fedeli’s character” but that he could not disregard them and told Fedeli he would look into the matter. Brown alleges that when he spoke to the complainant, she asked that the matter go no further.

“I respected her wishes and certainly without her involvement an investigation would be less than productive,” he wrote.

Brown further alleges that the woman was let go shortly after Fedeli was named interim party leader, but that she was kept on the legislative payroll.

In response to the allegations PC MPPs wore yellow ties in solidarity with Fedeli, who always wears one.

In the legislature Thursday morning, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on Premier Doug Ford to ask Fedeli to step down and an independent investigation be held into the allegations.

A defiant Premier Doug Ford defended Fedeli and accused Horwath of ‘playing politics.’

“There was a thorough investigation, a thorough investigation with zero evidence,” Ford said.

“For the leader of the opposition to bring this up in the House and start playing politics with someone’s life, it’s pretty serious. I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my minister of finance.”

Fedeli, who tabled the province’s fall economic statement in the legislature on Thursday afternoon, has called the allegations “categorically false and without any merit,” and said he was prepared to take legal action.

With files from The Canadian Press