Patrick Brown has officially joined the race to lead the federal Conservative Party, promising to address the rifts that have occurred in the party over recent years.

Brown, 43, launched his campaign in Brampton, Ontario, where he has served as mayor since 2018. He walked onto the stage at the Queens Manor Events Centre with his wife Genevieve and their two children on Sunday as the crowd cheered his name.

Brown’s campaign speech proposed giving greater voice to caucus members and a bigger tent for Conservatives.

Brown told the crowd on Sunday, "I want those who have never voted Conservative and who have voted for other parties to feel welcome in our family."

Brown, known within the party as a hardworking organizer, is the fifth candidate to enter the Conservative leadership race, which has already seen former federal Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest and Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre enter.

The race also includes rising Ontario MP Leslie Lewis and Roman Baber, an independent member from Ontario.

Notably, Brown’s political experience is deep in Brampton, a key and large part of the country where Conservatives know they need to increase their support if they hope to form a government.

He promised to do so without sacrificing seats in Western or rural Canada and suggested the party stop treating Conservative members in the West "like ATM machines and start winning electoral victories."

In his speech, Brown addressed the main concern raised about his candidacy by party membership:

Namely that he announced his support for carbon pricing during his tenure as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, a policy many party members reject as an ineffective "tax," including his leadership rival Pierre Poilievre, who vowed to repeal the federal consumer carbon price and attacked Brown for supporting this policy.

Just before Brown announced his run for party leadership, Poilievre’s team launched an attack ad under the slogan "Patrick Brown will say and do anything," referring to his inconsistent stance on environmental policy.

He said, "Previous attempts by conservative parties in Canada to address climate change, including those I led, were not consulted with our members or caucus."

Adding, "Believe me from experience, I can definitely admit that this is not the right approach."

He said if elected leader, the party would decide its environmental policies collectively.

"I am confident we can together reach a winning center, a position that addresses climate change and respects regional jurisdictions, energy security, and workers in the energy sector, while maintaining the cost of living," he said.

Brown recently wrote a letter asking Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to scrap the planned April 1 increase, citing gas prices and other affordability concerns.

Brown also made a pitch to rebuild trust with "cultural communities" in Canada, a voter base that calls the country’s largest cities and suburbs home and whose support Conservatives must win if they hope to succeed in the next election.

In his speech, Brown expressed opposition to Quebec’s Bill 21, a controversial secular law in that province that prohibits public employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols while working.

As mayor of Brampton, Brown led a plan for cities to pledge money to help fund the legal challenge to the law.

He also condemned Conservative promises of a hotline for barbaric cultural practices and banning the niqab during the 2015 elections as an attempt to stifle religious freedoms and normalize bigotry.

He said those policies were the reason Conservatives lost that race to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Brown’s tumultuous political career has been marked by its ups and downs. Born in Toronto, he was a young Conservative elected to the Barrie, Ontario city council in 2000.

From there he became an MP in the government of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Brown left federal politics after winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in 2015, serving as opposition leader in the province until 2018.

Within months of the election — at a time when the Liberal government had been in power for over a decade — in January 2018, CTV aired sexual misconduct allegations from two women against Brown.

The allegations were not proven in court, nor independently verified by the Canadian press as Brown has consistently denied them, but after initially promising to stay in office, Brown resigned the next day and was expelled from the caucus within weeks.

He then ran for mayor of Brampton, Ontario, and was elected in October 2018, remaining in that position since.

Last week, Brown and CTV News settled a years-long defamation lawsuit following the 2018 story.

His speech on Sunday was enthusiastic and strong, exemplifying his fighting spirit. Amid chants from the crowd, he said, "When the media tried to make me the latest victim of culture through false accusations, I resisted and prevailed."

A statement issued by the broadcaster that aired that news and Brown said CTV regrets some errors made during their original story release.

The statement did not specify what those errors were, and a CTV spokesperson declined to elaborate.

This includes the original article updating the age of one of the two women who accused Brown of sexual misconduct.

The news network said no money was exchanged as part of this settlement.

Brown himself made no mention of any intention to resign as mayor of Brampton while seeking the federal party leadership.

He said he will donate his salary for various causes, including the William Osler Health System Foundation in Brampton, throughout the race.

Conservatives are set to learn who their new leader is on September 10, with candidates having until June 3 to register new members and until April 19 to announce their candidacy.