Brampton brouhaha spills over to Queen's Park

And spending ups and downs

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BRAMPTON BROUHAHA — With the Ford government hinting at bringing strong-mayor powers to other major cities beyond Toronto and Ottawa, one councillor in Brampton is urging the province not to hand them over to Mayor PATRICK BROWN.

Brown submits his papers to run for re-election in Brampton. Photo: Getty

Brown — who is back in the municipal fray after being disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race — has faced allegations of ethics breaches at City Hall.

Now, outgoing councillor JEFF BOWMAN is pleading with the province to block Brown from getting sweeping new authority a la the 416 and 613, calling Brown “the poster child for not delegating these powers to a Mayor.”

“If there’s mayors that have already demonstrated that there’s this possible abuse of these powers, why on earth would we give them more?” Bowman told reporters at Queen’s Park.

It isn’t likely Ontario will pick and choose which cities get strong-mayor powers so arbitrarily — that could be bad …