Randy Hillier Denies Sending the Email That Got Him Fired by Hudak

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader, Tim Hudak, faced yet another internal caucus issue on Friday, only a week before he was risked to encounter potential leadership review at a party policy conference. Hudak made a surprise announcement to have fired his PC labour critic, Randy Hillier, citing reason that he had addressed an email to caucus showing concerns that the Tories could be open to criticism that they used a private members’ bill to try to get donations from EllisDon, a large construction company.

In a news conference hosted by Hudak immediately after the email was sent, he announced to have appointed Monte McNaughton as his new labour critic. However, a short while after, Hillier mentioned in a press release that he did not violate caucus confidentiality and never leaked the email to the media. He explained that “Tim Hudak demanded that I both apologize for allegedly breaking caucus confidentiality and to publicly retract the comments I had made in the aforementioned email.” Though, he added that “I made it clear to Tim that under no circumstances would I retract the comments and concerns that I raised three months ago, and that I still stand by to this day.”

Hillier alleged that he did not release his original email to The Canadian Press, but confirmed a key part of its contents: “In caucus, it was stated quite explicitly that following a successful EllisDon fundraiser for Tim, our party would continue to benefit financially with the advancement of this legislation.”