Vic Fedeli won't be running for permanent leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.
Named interim leader on Friday, replacing Patrick Brown, Fedeli vowed to be the one to unseat premier Kathleen Wynne in June's provincial election.
He now says the structure of the party is so seriously damaged that he needs to give his undivided attention as interim leader to repairing it.
"I am giving you my word here, today, that I will fix the problems in our systems in my role as leader and I will root out any rot that has been manifesting itself," Fedeli promises. "It has been a chaotic time for our party and, quite frankly, a steady hand is needed at the helm of our party."
One of the issues he wants to get to the bottom of is whether all 200,000 PC party memberships are legitimate. "I have ordered a complete investigation into the addresses...the names and addresses of those 200,000."
He believes there could be a problem with some of those memberships. The investigation will include a technical analysis right down to the IP addresses of where the memberships came from.
Fedeli knows he is painting a dark picture but wants to be blunt and straightforward. "It's a message that says we don't have anything to hide. We acknowledge we've got issues and we're going to bring them forward, we're going to clean them up. They're issues that just help us organize the next election and the go forward process."
"I look forward to working with Ontario PC Leader Fedeli during this interim period; he is a man of great integrity who has put the Ontario PC Party and the province before self," says party president Jag Badwal.
"As Ontario PC Party President, I believe that Mr. Fedeli will bring stability in a time that has been difficult for our party."
The progressive conservative executive has settled on March 24th to select the party's permanent leader.