{"id":5644,"date":"2014-02-26T14:34:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T19:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5644"},"modified":"2014-03-05T14:32:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T19:32:42","slug":"somerville-withdraws-pc-race-amid-threats-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/somerville-withdraws-pc-race-amid-threats-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerville withdraws PC race amid \u201cthreats\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora\u2019s Stephen Somerville withdrew from the race to replace MPP Frank Klees on Wednesday morning amid what he describes as \u201cthreats\u201d made to him and his family. <\/p>\n

In a statement, he said the matter was now in the hands of police. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there were threats made against me and my family that has caused me to reconsider my candidacy in this race and upon considerable reflection, I have decided it is best I do not continue at this time,\u201d said Mr. Somerville in a statement. \u201cMy family is my top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter is now the subject of a police investigation, I cannot offer any details or additional comments at this time. I wish all approved candidates for the PC Party in Newmarket-Aurora good luck and hope that Ontarians elect an Ontario PC government, let by Tim Hudak, in the next provincial election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the York Regional Police declined to elaborate on the nature of an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time a citizen reports an incident to police, we will conduct a thorough investigation,\u201d said Constable Laura Nicolle. \u201cIf, in the course of that investigation, the evidence provides us grounds that an offence has been committed, investigators will lay the appropriate charges, based on the circumstances. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not confirm or deny if a report has been made to us or if an investigation is taking place or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Mr. Somerville out of the race, that leaves Newmarket Councillor Jane Twinney as the one left standing, so far, in the race.<\/p>\n

She said she was \u201cshocked\u201d that something like this would happen, particularly in Newmarket-Aurora. <\/p>\n

\u201cI sent an email to Stephen and expressed my hopes that everything was all right for him and his family, and to take care,\u201d said Councillor Twinney. \u201cHe has done a lot for this party and we were just shocked that something like this would happen and it is very sad to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is, however, business as usual for her campaign signing up new members and reaching out to the existing membership base. <\/p>\n

She reiterated she had not received any threats herself, and it had not crossed her mind about doing anything differently. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to start getting worried about things like that, I am just carrying on doing what I am doing,\u201d she said. \u201cAs of now, I am the only candidate but there are still two weeks for another candidate to come into the picture. I am just carrying on doing what I am doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Newmarket Councillor Maddie di Muccio was the first candidate to throw her hat in the ring to replace Mr. Klees. Her candidacy, however, was vetoed by the Party earlier this month, causing a flurry of debate within the party. <\/p>\n

Councillor di Muccio did not return calls from The Auroran for comment on the Somerville matter.<\/p>\n

Party faithful will formalize their candidate of choice in a nomination meeting on March 20. <\/p>\n

On the Ontario Liberal side, Aurora Councillor Chris Ballard is, at the moment, the only declared candidate. Elsewhere, Dorian Baxter will also stand as a candidate. The perennial Federal candidate for the Progressive Canadian party founded by Sinclair Stevens in response to the foundation of the new Conservative Party of Canada, has found a spot in the new Canadians\u2019 Choice Party. <\/p>\n

Finding his efforts to stand as a candidate for the Ontario PCs \u201cfrustrated\u201d, Mr. Baxter found his party in the Canadians\u2019 Choice, which bills itself as a \u201cbottom up\u201d party giving independent candidates a banner, and a place for \u201ctrue patriots\u201d to work for constituents \u201cand not a party leader.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s Stephen Somerville withdrew from the race to replace MPP Frank Klees last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1t2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 01:04:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}