The press conference that killed off Patrick Brown as the Leader of the Official Opposition of Ontario, Canada.
The sudden downfall of a minor politician seems insignificant, but consider that the Province of Ontario (Canada's largest province by GDP) is America's largest trading partner. Ontario has a GDP of $600 billion, an economy larger than most countries.
There's also a very Canadian angle to this story: at one point, Eric Lindros -- yes, the NHL hockey player -- pops up as being involved, though that's for a later story.
Brown gave this very short press conference minutes before an expose aired containing allegations of sexual harassment and assault. In a nutshell he is accused of a sex act with a drunk minor (16 years old), and the repetitive sexual harassment and alleged sexual assault of an aide.
We are months away from an election here in Ontario. Brown had a very good chance of becoming the next Premier.
As he delivered this press conference, much of his senior staff resigned, some via Twitter. Watching Brown, you can see he can barely keep it together. Not much of a Premier-in-waiting there.
As soon as he finished, he quickly moved away, pursued by the press all the way to his car. He refused to answer all but one question. "What are you going to do tomorrow?" To which he actually replied "Work as usual." Seriously?
Hours later, his caucus voted unanimously for his resignation. He tried to hang on, but in the middle of the night, he resigned.
I will write more on this, using the tag patrickbrown. There is so much more to tell.
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