Vic Fedeli’s world turned upside down shortly after 8 p.m. last night.
“I flew home last night from meetings in Toronto, I landed about 8:10 p.m. and at 8:15 p.m. I got the first phone call from some of the leadership of the party that said Patrick is holding a news conference in a very short amount of time and be prepared for some tough news,” said Fedeli.
The Nipissing MP held a press conference in downtown North Bay to react to the allegations of sexual misconduct that came out and led to the resignation of party leader Patrick Brown today.
“I never saw anything that would have indicated activity such as that. We spend time in caucus, we spend time in the legislature but I have not seen any activity of that nature at all,” Fedeli said when asked if there were any signs this would be coming.
Fedeli, who spoke for about 15 minutes with reporters admits he has not slept much since the news of Brown’s resignation came about.
It did not take the former mayor of North Bay long to throw his hat in the ring and offer his services as an interim or permanent leader of the provincial PC’s. He’s admittedly shocked but ready to take on another challenge in hopes of leading the PC’s into the 2018 spring election.
“It is a life change but we were prepared for this,” noted Fedeli.
“We made the decision back in 2014-15 when I decided to run for leader and so we had all those discussions then so we just needed to sort of hit the reset button and say, ‘are we still cool?’ well if we are still cool then let’s go for this and let’s have some fun doing it and bring some excitement to the party at a time when there are people who have had some serious tragedy in their lives.”
Fedeli says party executives and the caucus are sifting through the party constitution to see if they have time to hold a leadership convention with only four months to go until the election. However, Fedeli noted many members do not feel there is enough time to hold one.
“We have got to get this done and get on with it and show the province of Ontario that we are ready, we are ready to lead,” he said.
“I know that caucus is ready to meet tomorrow and look at moving forward with an interim leader in that respect and that interim leader may or may not be the permanent leader, it will depend on the executive,” added Fedeli.
“There are a lot of moving parts here, a lot of changes could still happen.”
