An Amherstburg councillor is feeling the heat from some of his council colleagues.
During Monday night's council meeting, some councillors questioned Councillor Linden Crain about his phone conversation earlier this month with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Councillor Peter Courtney brought the issue up during new business and said his phone 'blew up' and he wanted to know what happened and how the conversation came to be.
Crain replied, saying it was a two-minute conversation on a Sunday night with the premier, and the premier told him that Vic Fedeli is looking at the Diageo property and supports a new business going in there.
He also said he keeps in contact with the premier and doesn't believe it's an issue if council members were to reach out to the premier.
Following Crain's response, Mayor Michael Prue and Councillor Diane Pouget also questioned the councillor.
"It seemed very disrespectful, the way you spoke on AM800 because they asked you why the premier would reach out to you and not to the mayor, and your response was, 'You didn't know,'" says Pouget.
Crain said there was no disrespect, and he has seen Councillor Pouget at Ontario PC events.
"The mayor and I spoke; we had an email; we had a phone call conversation. I reached out to the CAO first; she said, 'Make sure you call the mayor,' which I did," said Crain.
The morning following the phone call between Crain and Ford, there was an Ontario PC breakfast event that Prue questioned Crain about.
"I'm just curious; there was a breakfast the next morning, which was $1,500 a ticket. Did you buy your ticket, or did somebody give it to you?" says Prue. "The ticket was a gift; I paid for a portion of it, and based off of consulting with the integrity commissioner, which you are well aware of, Mayor, that I CC'd you on that email, I don't have to disclose it under a certain value."
Crain told his colleages, he feels council members are allowed to call the premier or any elected official.
"I see them at AMO or ROMA; I go up to ministers. Minister Stephen Lecce knows who I am," says Crain. "I've made sure I've had several conversations with him, not speaking on behalf of council in any way."
Pouget said residents that reached out to her don't want Crain speaking on behalf of council or the municipality.
"I started to get numerous phone calls saying we do not want him to be speaking on anything to do with Diageo or money that would be coming to our municipality," said Pouget.
Crain said it felt like he was being targetted at the meeting.
"Clearly it's an election year, and I can tell by the questions I'm being asked," said Crain. "What I will say is I did speak to the mayor, and the mayor and I had a phone call, and he mentioned if I do see the premier, to mention projects relating to Duffy's and an Indigenous project at the riverfront; I did not have that opportunity."
On March 2, Crain told AM800's The Kyle Horner Show stated that he will be seeing Premier Ford in person in a few weeks.
At that time, he said he plans to bring up the Diageo facility and any other topics the town wants him to bring up.
Crain also said he appreciated the Premier calling him and called it 'a high-level conversation.'