Court to hear application to extend Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race

FILE (Photo: Brian Turner/ Flickr)

TORONTO — A Toronto lawyer who says he represents a disenfranchised member of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives has taken legal action in an effort to extend the party’s leadership race by a week.

Jeffrey Radnoff says he filed an application for an injunction to extend the process on Thursday and the Superior Court of Justice will hear the application on Friday morning.

Voting in the race is scheduled to end on Friday at noon and the winner is set to be announced at a convention on Saturday, just months ahead of a general election.

Radnoff says his client, listed on the notice of application as Christopher Arsenault, did not receive a personal identification number allowing him to vote in the leadership election.

The chair of the leadership organizing committee, Hartley Lefton, wrote in an email Thursday that the party’s election is in accordance with the PC constitution.

Lefton says the party already extended the voting period once, and extended the verification period three times.