Patrick Brown’s leadership campaign is the latest to raise concerns about what it calls “misleading” emails sent to party members by his main rival.
Brown’s national campaign co-chair John Reynolds sent a letter Thursday to the party’s leadership election organizing committee requesting it investigate emails sent by Pierre Poilievre’s campaign ahead of last month’s deadline to sell $15 memberships to supporters.
To vote for the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, the party had said supporters needed to be signed up as members no later than June 3.
Poilievre’s campaign has said it alone sold nearly 312,000 memberships through his website, including some 119,000 in Ontario.
But Reynolds’ letter alleges Brown’s campaign received a “number of complaints” from members who said they purchased new memberships after receiving what appeared to be an “official-looking warning” from Poilievre’s team that their membership status was incomplete.
The email specifies it is from Poilievre’s campaign.
A spokesman for Poilievre’s team said the email in question went to people who, “according to our own records,” were not members.
“We would gain no advantage in signing up a person who is already a member,” wrote Anthony Koch. “They would still only get to vote once.”
Poilievre has also requested the party release numbers for how many members his team signed up, which it has so far declined to do.