Barrie MP Patrick Brown has sold more than 40,000 memberships ahead of the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership vote in a couple of months.

“Only the party members can vote,” explains political analyst Michael Johns. “By going out and getting new members you are getting members that can only vote for you and are not going to consider any of the other candidates.”

Reports show that Brown’s lead dominates that of both Christine Elliott, who has sold 13,000 memberships, and Monte McNaughton, who sold 6,000.

“The assumption was that Christine Elliot is the leader in the campaign and that's not the case now,” said Johns. “She's going to have to play catch up with whatever time is remaining.”

Brown says creative campaigning is to credit for his success.

“We reached out to communities that had no participation in the PC party, and I attended their events and I said ‘We have the same values. We have the same concerns. Let's build a better Ontario together’.”

Analysts say because of his high membership sales, Brown will find himself in the spotlight.

“People will now be gunning for him,” said Johns. “So his problem is that he won't be able to be the outside voice. He will get all the media attention that Christine Elliot would have had.”

But Brown says he’s prepared for anything.

“I expect that I'm going to take a few body checks given that we have a significant lead in memberships, but I'm going to call on the party to be united. We don't need to attack each other. We don't need to go into negative politics; we need to speak about what unites us as conservatives.”

PC party members across the province will vote for the new leader on May 3rd and 7th, using preferential ballots, with the results to be announced at a convention in Toronto on May 9th.