Young candidate embroiled in controversy with Doug Ford
During the week at Toronto city hall, Kinga Surma worked for then-councillor Peter Milczyn. The rest of the time was a different matter.
The man she was dating, Amin Massoudi, was executive assistant to then-councillor Doug Ford and, on weekends, she would head out with Massoudi and his boss to events and other official business, Milczyn recalled Friday.
“They seemed to have a pretty tumultuous relationship, but Kinga certainly spent as much time as she could with him, and with Doug Ford,” says Milczyn, now a Liberal MPP. “Kinga was always tagging along.”
Surma ran for the Tory nomination in Etobicoke Centre in late 2016, a relatively late challenger to PC stalwart and lawyer Pina Martino. As first reported by the Post, Ford helped her extensively to recruit the new PC members that are crucial to winning a candidacy, and allegedly broke party rules by footing the bills for many of those memberships.
Ford denied this week that he bought anyone’s membership, or that he tried to intimidate Martino by following her in his car, as the candidate alleged in an email obtained and released by the Liberal party. He also said that he had earlier supported and donated to Martino.
But it was Surma who won the nomination on Nov. 21, 2016.
Surma later worked on Christine Elliott’s second Ontario Tory leadership bid, and eventually took a job in the office of Patrick Brown, who beat Elliott to become leader in 2015.
Holyday said he supported Martino in the Etobicoke Centre nomination battle, not expecting that Surma would make a last-minute run there.
“What prompted (she and Ford) to co-operate and to seek that nomination, I have no idea,” he said. “I was a bit surprised that Doug didn’t support Pina … He never told me why he didn’t.”
Young candidate embroiled in controversy with Doug Ford | National Post
During the week at Toronto city hall, Kinga Surma worked for then-councillor Peter Milczyn. The rest of the time was a different matter.
The man she was dating, Amin Massoudi, was executive assistant to then-councillor Doug Ford and, on weekends, she would head out with Massoudi and his boss to events and other official business, Milczyn recalled Friday.
“They seemed to have a pretty tumultuous relationship, but Kinga certainly spent as much time as she could with him, and with Doug Ford,” says Milczyn, now a Liberal MPP. “Kinga was always tagging along.”
Surma ran for the Tory nomination in Etobicoke Centre in late 2016, a relatively late challenger to PC stalwart and lawyer Pina Martino. As first reported by the Post, Ford helped her extensively to recruit the new PC members that are crucial to winning a candidacy, and allegedly broke party rules by footing the bills for many of those memberships.
Ford denied this week that he bought anyone’s membership, or that he tried to intimidate Martino by following her in his car, as the candidate alleged in an email obtained and released by the Liberal party. He also said that he had earlier supported and donated to Martino.
But it was Surma who won the nomination on Nov. 21, 2016.
Surma later worked on Christine Elliott’s second Ontario Tory leadership bid, and eventually took a job in the office of Patrick Brown, who beat Elliott to become leader in 2015.
Holyday said he supported Martino in the Etobicoke Centre nomination battle, not expecting that Surma would make a last-minute run there.
“What prompted (she and Ford) to co-operate and to seek that nomination, I have no idea,” he said. “I was a bit surprised that Doug didn’t support Pina … He never told me why he didn’t.”
Young candidate embroiled in controversy with Doug Ford | National Post