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Patrick Brown stops in Barrie to sign copies of his new book

Autobiography 'Take Down: The Attempted Political Assassination of Patrick Brown' selling well, says publisher

Patrick Brown made a stop in his hometown Saturday for a book signing at Barrie's Royal Canadian Legion branch to a crowd of supporters.

The former provincial Progressive Conservative leader and current mayor of Brampton stopped in at the legion on St. Vincent Street for a public signing of his new tell-all book, Take Down: The Attempted Political Assassination of Patrick Brown.

Supporters packed the legion's upper level to get a copy of the new release, which went on sale Friday and has already shown signs of doing well. 

Brown, who was running late on Saturday, wasn't available for an interview with BarrieToday. 

Publisher of Optimum Publishing International, Dean Baxendale, told BarrieToday that while it is only the second day, big things are expected of Brown's book.

"It is going fast, for instance, before Costco even got the book out of their warehouse the demand at their stores was so high that they increased their order from 2,000 to 3,000 copies," said Baxendale. "It's the No. 1 best seller on Amazon.ca already for political biographies and I should find out today where it sits on the charts for all books in Canada."

Brown has made headlines with the book already with excerpts being discussed by Premier Doug Ford, and members of the Ontario political scene as it relates to allegations of sexual misconduct against Finance Minister Vic Fedeli.

Baxendale has no problem with the book being discussed at all.

"I suspect there is momentum growing behind it because quite frankly the Conservative Party has done us a great favour by putting focus on the book and challenging the assertions in the book," said Baxendale.

Brown signed copies of his book for more than two hours, while also taking part in a sit-down Q&A about the book.

He said he knows there are chapters that folks will likely find most interesting while hopefully enjoying the overall read.

"There's the night some of the paid mercenaries who went against some of the calculation that there was in terms of trying to take control of the party and those aspects are certainly controversial, but I would also say that some of the difficult debates we've had with the Conservative Party, whether it was on environment, gay rights or on Islamophobia were interesting," Brown said. 

"I think all of those positions where I was trying to move the party to the political centre are probably gaining more attention and getting press the most," he added. 

Brown closed the speaking part of the signing by telling the crowd not to worry, he still had allegiances to some Barrie institutions.

"As you know, there is no OHL team in Brampton, so believe me, I am still allowed to be a die-hard Colts fan," Brown said.

Brown, 40, has a long political history in the Barrie area. He was elected to Barrie city council in 2000, followed by a second term.

In his first bid to become Barrie's MP, in 2004, Brown lost to Liberal incumbent Aileen Carroll. Two years later, Brown defeated Carroll to become the city's MP, and won his re-election in 2008 after winning by more than 15,000 votes. Brown was also re-elected to a third term in 2011. 

In September 2014, Brown announced he would run for leader of the province's PC Party the following year to replace Tim Hudak. Brown became party leader in May 2015 and a few days later he resigned his seat in the House of Commons to make the jump to provincial politics. 

In July 2015, Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop gave up his seat so Brown could run in a byelection, which he won. 

Brown was leader of the PC Party from 2015 until 2018. 

On Jan. 24, 2018, Brown was accused of sexual misconduct dating back to his time as an MP. Despite continually denying the accusations, he resigned as PC leader early the following morning. Fedeli became the interim party leader.

Brown was booted from the PC caucus less than a month later. Members of the party's nomination committee also stated they would not sign his nomination papers to run in this past summer's provincial election in the riding of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte. 

Brown, who married Genevieve Gualtieri in late-September, returned to municipal politics on Oct. 22 when he won the race to become mayor of Brampton, where he now lives.