If there's an investigation, and in fact that isn't the case, it wasn't them doing things on purpose, it wasn't nefarious activity on their part, um, what do you say to people who are concerned that you've, like, tarnished his name now, that you've impeded his ability to win that riding for your party?

party?So just to be very clear, I was shaking hands, I was smiling, I was trying to win a campaign.

There were countless scrutineers in the room in the, in, in ca- you know, overseeing the process and, and watching what was taking place in the voting room.

And these are people with incredible experience.

So our chief scrutineer, Andreas Katsouris, has 25 years experience in political campaigns, in training, participating in election observer missions around the world in countless cou- countries from Armenia to Ukraine.

And he has very clearly...

Th- those are his words that I shared, not my own, when it came to people relentlessly taking pictures of their ballots.

"Hundreds of Ontario Liberal voters and citizens were struck from the list in advance of the vote while, uh, M- Mr. Hafez's," pardon me, "campaign manager, yes, the same one who ran Han Dong's 2019 nomination, was joined by other party establishment to get out hundreds of temporary residents to, quote, save the party, as one prominent insider put it." I, I'm just wondering, and I'm not condoning in any way what may have occurred, but if the party establishment thinks they need to save it from your leadership, do they perhaps not think you can beat Doug Ford? And is it something that, that you need to consider?

Right.

Uh, number one, there are 34 more votes in the ballot box than there were recorded voters that were struck off the list as having voted, and the margin of it, of, of, we lost by 19 votes, okay? So on that basis alone, there's a real challenge.

But beyond that, the, the process was full of, of problems, from people in the ballot box being instructed how to vote, including on speakerphone, including on video calls in the ballot box, getting instructed how to vote while they were marking their ballot.

Uh, you had instances of, uh, uh, individuals using documentation that the party at the outset said they wouldn't accept, lease agreements that included somehow kids under the age of 18 to prove residency.

You had one individual vote with an Amazon order as proof of residence.

You, you run down the list and, and it was inexplicable at times.

Uh, and, and, and the last key piece to note, I mean, among many [chuckles] many pieces of information that, that came that were, that were frustrating and concerning, but there were countless people, an overwhelming number of people that were there, uh, as temporary residents, for sure, and, and when they were asked where they, where they, uh, lived, they couldn't remember their address.

I mean, where, where does that stand now? Do you stay as an MP, or do you still intend to pursue the top job in the party?