As part of municipal election coverage, Brampton’s Reddit community is hosting AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with some of the city’s mayoral candidates. Mayor Linda Jeffrey already had hers, and Patrick Brown participated in one on Friday.
Brown’s AMA received serious attention, garnering over 300 comments. Participants were able to ask questions for a couple of hours, and they didn’t hold back. Brown was inundated with questions, not just about policy and commitments if elected as mayor, but about his past and how it might affect Brampton.
In the Mayor Susan Fennel era many Bramptonians felt there was scandal after scandal and a lack of transparency coming out of city hall. Because of that, it comes as no surprise that Brown’s past scandals and ethical breaches are a sore point for voters in the city–and it showed during the Q&A.
Participants asked about a number of skeletons in Brown’s closet, including the sexual assault case, allegations that he took $375,000 to nominate a candidate in Brampton, ballot stuffing and his knowledge of the illegal use of stolen information from the 407.
There were dozens of questions and quite most received answers, but some participants felt it was not nearly enough and were left dissatisfied with the answers Brown gave.
“I think his responses frequently avoided the question, and left much to be desired,” said one Reddit user.
“I [asked] a question and felt I was just given a generic response that didn’t actually answer my question. It seems like the only questions he fully answered were either to defend himself or comment negatively on Jeffrey,” said another.
Many Redditors thought Brown’s answers about policy were lackluster, not offering much depth or explanation. Many of his responses focused on attacking incumbent Linda Jeffrey. At one point he referred to Brampton’s sitting mayor as “hysterical” and accused her of smearing and mudslinging, which garnered replies from people who pointed out he was also smearing and mudslinging.
One question that continues to follow Brown, and one that unsurprisingly came up in the AMA, was how long he has resided in Brampton. Brown has repeatedly stated that he lives in downtown Brampton with his fiance — and he reiterated this during the AMA — but he has continued to deflect questions about exactly how long he’s resided in the city. Some say he moved into Brampton overnight to run for mayor after Ontario Premier Doug Ford cancelled the Regional Council election just a day before Brown registered to run in Brampton’s mayoral election.
From the perspective of voters who participated, it appears Brown still has a lot to answer for. The full AMA is available in Brampton’s Subreddit, which you can check out here.