Wynne calls by-election so PC Leader Patrick Brown can run for seat

Let's make this snappy.

Premier Kathleen Wynne had bowed to pressure from Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and called a by-election for Sept. 3.

The timeline will allow Mr. Brown to win a seat before the fall session of the legislature begins on Sept. 14.

Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop, the party's education critic, has resigned his Simcoe North seat so that Mr. Brown can try to get into the legislature.

Originally, Ms. Wynne's Liberals wanted to wait and call the by-election for late fall, after the Oct. 19 federal election.

But Mr. Brown pressed them, via a series of open letters, to call the by-election sooner so that he could take his seat in the legislature before Sept. 14.

Simcoe North, a semi-rural riding a 90-minute drive north of Toronto, is adjacent to Mr. Brown's old federal seat of Barrie.

It is also reliably Conservative: Mr. Dunlop won the past three elections there with margins of more than 10 per cent.

The Liberals and New Democrats, however, will be running candidates against Mr. Brown.

Winning a seat would allow Mr. Brown to confront Ms. Wynne directly in the daily Question Period.

Veteran Progressive Conservative MPP Jim Wilson has been filling in as Official Opposition Leader since July, 2014, when Tim Hudak stepped down after his loss to Ms. Wynne in the 2014 election.

Mr. Brown won the PC leadership in May.