At a news conference in North Bay this afternoon Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli became the first to seek the vacant PC leadership job telling reporters "I'll let my name stand for the position of leader of our party.
"I look forward to meeting with our caucus. I've had tremendous support both last night, all night. I don't think any of us have gone to bed yet so all through the night and day I've been hearing from our caucus members who say it's your time Vic, you're the one, you're the person to do this.
"And so I'll respect the decision of caucus. and let my name stand tomorrow and if that's what caucus chooses then I'll look forward to leading us forward."
Fedeli says the Brown announcement was a shock to the system and society but that everyone needs to deal with it in their own way.
"It's deplorable what we saw on the news and so from our perspective, I've got to look now at the reality now that there is an election in a very few months and we need to look at what we have to do to win the election, let's be frank about that."
Fedeli feels strongly that his party can recover from the scandal.
"I think our party has a very powerful message. I've looked at the polls lately. the cliche is the only poll that will count is the one on election day but the polls are very strong and that's a result of a fabulous platform. That platform stands. That platform isn't going to change. We've got 80 pages of solid programs that are going to help turn Ontario around. None of that is going to change and I know we've got a great caucus, we've got a fabulous roster of candidates right across Ontario who are ready to implement this and I look forward to representing them as the leader of the party if they so want me."
The PC Party Executive is meeting later today to establish the process for determining the new leader.
The PC caucus will choose its new leader in a meeting tomorrow in Toronto.
It's unclear if the party will choose an interim leader first, then hold a leadership race for someone to lead the party into the election, or select a leader tomorrow that will carry the flag into the election.
Other possible candidates being tossed about are Lisa MacLeod, Christine Elliott, Lisa Raitt, Doug Ford and Caroline Mulroney.
