Before André Marin barrelled into the Ottawa-Vanier byelection race, a University of Ottawa professor had been campaigning for the Progressive Conservative nomination.

Cameron Montgomery — a multi-lingual education professor with a background as a semi-pro tennis player — told QP Briefing he’d been campaigning for the nomination and had found support, but when he found out about Marin’s interest in running in the riding, he stepped aside.

“His timing is perfect for this byelection,” said Montgomery. “He’s someone who has a history of holding people accountable for their actions, and in this case he’s holding the Liberal government accountable for their actions, especially in terms of fiscal mismanagement, hydro rates and some of the key issues we’re hearing about in the news — of course math scores are extremely disappointing.”

Montgomery said he found out about Marin’s interest last week, about a week prior to Marin’s nomination on the weekend.

“My first reaction was positive — I think, it’s a Francophone, the ombudsman who’s well-known, someone who’s a little bit controversial, let’s say, but who definitely holds people accountable — so the initial reaction was positive, and became more positive over time,” he said.

Montgomery is considering running for the PCs in 2018.

“I have the party’s full support as a potential candidate in another riding in the future,” he said, adding that the party has pointed him in the direction of running in Ottawa-Orleans.

PC Leader Patrick Brown said no promises were made, as the party is committed to fair, open, democratic nominations, but he’s encouraging Montgomery to run again.

“Cam’s a good friend of mine, he’s actually an old tennis partner of mine,” said Brown. “I’m a big fan of his.”

Warming up with some doubles with our leader @brownbarrie this morning. pic.twitter.com/fo9tXlX2qj

— Cameron Montgomery (@CamMontgomeryPC) September 24, 2016

Meanwhile, all three of Ontario's major political parties are open to the idea of instituting a cooling-off period that would make independent officers of the legislature wait before jumping into partisan politics.

That, of course, was prompted by former Ontario ombudsman André Marin’s sudden entrance into the Ottawa-Vanier byelection.

Marin was acclaimed Saturday after publicly announcing his intention to run that same morning.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said she expects the byelection to be “hard-fought.” When asked about the idea of a cooling-off period, she said it was something the legislature as a whole could consider.

Deputy NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Brown said the same thing.

Brown noted that his party has also been calling for a cooling-off period for government staff.

“We have ministerial staff working for that minister, giving government contracts out and then working for that big energy company or that big company that got that contract,” he said.

Brown also said he hasn’t put any limits on Marin’s rather notorious tweeting — but Marin realizes he’s representing a team now.

Marin launched a Twitter appeal to keep his job as ombudsman that included retweeting someone who’d called Ontario a “banana republic.” In another incident, he used Twitter to publicly name and shame a Durham police officer who he’d believe was responsible for tweeting offensive things to him — but fingered the wrong cop. At other times, he’s taken to personally insulting others on the social media platform, such as calling Toronto’s former ombudswoman Fiona Crean “Chicken Little.”

PC candidate who stepped aside for André Marin encouraged to run in neighbouring riding in 2018

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