Leave, demotion, and sensitivity training

MacLaren was forced to apologize on April 6, 2016, after calling his federal Liberal counterpart Karen McCrimmon to the stage at a cancer fundraising dinner the previous month in Carp, and then telling a vulgar joke about her and her husband's sexual relationship.^[20] MacLaren emailed an apology to McCrimmon after the story was first reported by the Toronto Star.^[20] The incident prompted criticism from across party lines, as fellow Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod and federal Conservative MP Michelle Rempel both tweeted in support of McCrimmon.^[20] Patrick Brown said that the party had "zero tolerance for misogynistic comments and an apology was made correctly to Karen McCrimmon this morning."^[20][21]

On April 12, 2016, the Ottawa Citizen reported that MacLaren's website included a testimonials section praising his work where most of the constituents were fictional and were represented by photos that had been taken without permission from the internet.^[22] One of the testimonials was from a "Robert & Karen" from Constance Bay, which coincidentally is where MacLaren's federal counterpart, Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon lives with her husband Robert.^[22] MacLaren's website initially added a disclaimer claiming that the names and depictions of constituents had been changed to protect their privacy before removing the page entirely.^[23] MacLaren then issued an apology for the improper use of constituent testimonials and had his website taken offline.^[23]

The next day, Patrick Brown decided to demote MacLaren after the events of the past few weeks by replacing him as the party's Eastern Ontario representative in caucus with Jim McDonell.^[5] MacLaren kept his position as the shadow cabinet critic for natural resources, the chair of a party panel on property rights, and as an ambassador to ethnic communities.^[12]

On April 14, the Ottawa Citizen reported that MacLaren had been heard making vulgar jokes about Premier Kathleen Wynne. Both Wynne and Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath called for MacLaren to be kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus, and Wynne called for Queen's Park to create a code of conduct for MPPs. Brown ordered MacLaren to go on indefinite leave from the Legislature to focus on constituency work and to undergo sensitivity training.^[24][25] Brown also stated that MacLaren's caucus responsibilities would be reassigned.^[24][25]

On May 31, 2016, MacLaren returned to Queen's Park after completing his sensitivity training.^[26]

Expulsion from PCs, first Trillium Party MPP

On May 28, 2017, Brown expelled MacLaren from the PC caucus, purportedly after a video recording surfaced of a 2012 speech in which he criticized French language rights in the province, and indicated that the party would act to limit them once in office. Brown also stated that MacLaren would not be allowed to run as a Tory in the next election.^[27] After his expulsion was announced, he released a statement on Twitter saying he had joined the Trillium Party of Ontario.^[1] MacLaren stated in an interview with the Toronto Star that he had already planned the week before to announce his move to the Trillium Party at a 3:30pm news conference on May 29, but Brown learned of his plans and expelled him first.^[28] Brown said that while there had been rumours of MacLaren leaving to potentially form his own party, Brown personally was unaware of MacLaren's plan to join the Trillium Party until after he found out about the video and expelled him.^[29]

In an interview with Evan Solomon on CFRA after his expulsion, MacLaren said that he had grown unhappy with the direction that Brown was taking the party and hadn't spoken to him in a year. MacLaren said that he felt he could serve his constituents better with the Trillium Party, and that the Progressive Conservatives had no values and its establishment was anti-democratic. He also characterized Solomon's questions on the reasoning for his dismissal as "talking about something that isn't helping anybody" and a valueless waste of time.^[30]

Since the Trillium Party lacked official party status in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, MacLaren was officially counted as an independent.^[31] In the 2018 election, he lost his bid for re-election in the new riding of Kanata—Carleton, essentially the Ottawa portion of his old riding. He finished fifth out of seven candidates after losing over half of his vote from 2014.