As the Ontario PC caucus was gathering at Queen's Park Friday morning to choose an interim leader, MPP Lisa MacLeod dropped a bombshell: She'd heard of allegations against Patrick Brown, similar to the ones that brought down his leadership this week, and she'd reported them to her party's "war room" before Christmas.

"People would tell me things and I would float it up the flag pole to the central campaign," she said. "I was told that it was unfounded. I'm not a private investigator, I'm not a police officer, but certainly when I heard issues about women, I would bring them forward."

She declined to get into specifics, but said she had reported what she’d heard to the campaign two or three times.

But MacLeod later clarified her statements: they were rumours, and the person she reported the allegations to was Dimitri Soudas; and she did not tell the campaign leadership and not Brown or his staff.

"I didn't have a lot of trust in a lot of Patrick Brown's people," she explained, and acknowledged that Soudas isn't at the top of the food chain in the party. The former Harper spokesperson — and former Liberal — is reportedly volunteering his services in the party's war room.

She said she had told Soudas about "just a couple of different things I would hear, some of them in very limited detail," she said. She said what she relayed concerned "inappropriate touching" and "multiple girlfriends."

She also made it clear she had not informed the "members of the senior campaign team that resigned."

That would refer to a number of Tories who announced their resignations on Wednesday night, before Brown agreed to step down. Alykhan Velshi, who was Brown's chief of staff, Andrew Boddington, who was the campaign manager and Dan Robertson, who was deputy campaign manager for strategy, released a joint statement announcing their resignations. Press secretary Nick Bergamini, deputy campaign manager Joshua Workman and strategist Ken Boessenkool also resigned.

"They took a principled stand and did the right thing," MacLeod said. "I'm grateful to them for taking a stand for women."

Having heard the rumours she did, MacLeod said she wasn't shocked but relieved when she saw allegations of sexual misconduct become public on Wednesday night.

"I'm strongly in support of the women," she said. "My heart was very warm that those two women had the courage to come forward in this climate."

Her message to those two women: "You got this, I'm proud of you."

Soudas responded to MacLeod with a series of tweets.

"Ms. McLeod informed me of rumours and allegations in regards to her then leader, Mr. Brown. She did not have specific details. Just rumours. I strongly urged her to raise these issues directly with Mr. Brown as I was a volunteer and she was a caucus member," he said. "I also urged her to raise this issue with caucus. She clearly didn’t... according to Ms. McLeod. These rumours were given to her by Eric Lindros."

Lindros, the former NHL player, worked with MacLeod on Rowan's Law, legislation she championed about concussions.

MacLeod later tweeted that she did pass on something Lindros had said to her, but it wasn't a "specific allegation."

"Eric & I speak regularly about concussions & sometimes about hockey & politics. At no time did he share with me specific allegations about Patrick Brown," she tweeted. "Rather he asked me in November "what is it that they have on Patrick Brown"? after hearing speculation. I shared that."

QP Briefing has reached out to Lindros for comment.

After being selected as interim leader, Vic Fedeli said he knew nothing of the allegations against Brown.

-By Jessica Smith Cross and Christopher Reynolds

Lisa MacLeod: I reported allegations I’d heard about Patrick Brown to the campaign before Christmas

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