The federal Conservative candidate for Toronto Centre says he is being dumped by his party because he wasn't "staying on message" with the national campaign strategy.

Mark Warner, a 43-year-old international trade lawyer, says he has also had strong disagreements with his national bosses on how to run against a high-profile Liberal candidate. The battles have created a tense relationship, he says.

Former Ontario premier and federal Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae is running in the diverse riding, which was vacated in the summer after Bill Graham, the former interim Liberal leader, resigned.

Warner, who has been campaigning for 10 months, said he was trying to highlight the need for better urban and social policies, which wasn't what the party's campaign brass wanted.

"I was trying to stay on message in terms of talking about crime and other major issues, but in a riding that is 60 per cent immigrants, that has lots of public housing, and has two universities and a community college, I felt the need to also talk to the issues that my constituents were raising on the door -- education, immigration, housing, in addition to environment, health care and crime," he told CTV's Mike Duffy Live on Thursday.

Warner, who says he is comfortable with his "Red Tory" label, said those at the helm of the Conservative campaign machine don't understand that some of its members have to tailor to local issues.

"Every brand manager knows that McDonald's sells lobster rolls in Nova Scotia and beer in France," he said.

"You can stay on message with a national brand, but you have to recognize some local (concerns) if you truly want to engage with those people and have a credible chance of winning."

Warner said Tories are capable of winning the riding, which the party controlled from 1978 to 1993.

He said he was only trying to "strengthen the urban voice that has been regrettably absent from our current national government."

"The Conservative Party today cynically pays 'lip service' to diversity and outreach to minority communities in Canada," Warner stated in a press release.

On Mike Duffy Live, he noted the party has controlled how he is represented, including deleting a reference on his biography that he attended the 2006 international conference on AIDS in Toronto, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not.

Another item wiped off his resume was a reference to a book on trade he co-wrote with Graham.

When asked if he would vote for the candidate who replaced him, Warner said he wasn't sure. He noted, however, he wouldn't campaign on their behalf.

"There's the old saying, 'you don't want to belong to a club that won't have you as a member,'" he said.

"I think I was a good candidate .... I tried to speak to urban issues. If the candidate that comes in here wants to do anything other than that, they will not do very well."

A byelection must be called in the Toronto riding by the end of the year.