Ontario Liberals gathered in downtown Toronto last Saturday to talk over the party's missteps in the election and start charting a way to a better result next time.

The Liberals had one of their worst outcomes in their history in this spring's election, besting the party's worst-ever result in 2018 by just one seat.

Liberal sources who attended the party's debrief on Saturday who've spoken to QP Briefing since shared some of their takeaways from the sessions. Some reflections were positive, while others weren't.

The Good

What's perhaps most promising for the Ontario Liberal Party is that it doesn't have to dig out as deep a financial hole as it did after the 2018 election.

In a briefing he gave to members, party treasurer Tim Shortill explained that the party is in a much better fiscal situation than in 2018.

A source with knowledge about the party's finances told QP Briefing that it expects to pay off its debt from this campaign by spring 2023. Currently the party has an outstanding $3 million loan, but about $1.5 million in the bank as well.

The Liberal party was about $10 million in debt after the 2018 election.

Andrew Perez, a longtime Liberal who worked on the party's 2022 campaign and attended the debrief, recalled Shortill explaining that tough financial decisions made by the party since the previous election had paid off.

The OLP is hoping to eliminate its debt by sometime in 2023, according to two other Liberals.

One of these sources, and two others, also said they were pleasantly surprised at the overall tone of the debrief and the mood of attendees.

"It wasn't as negative as initially expected, (I think) given the three-month lull since the election," one said.

"I was around in 2018 — and of course I was around this time, but what feels different is that it feels like the party's in a better place, with some newer blood," another source said.

Perez described Saturday as overall being a "fruitful gathering" after a difficult election that was "the first step in a number of steps that'll be involved in continuing to rebuild (the) party over the next four years." He added that it was "heartening" that about 600 Liberals showed up, including some from outside the GTA.

Jerry Levitan, who was the Liberal candidate in Davenport, where he lost to NDP MPP and probable leadership contender Marit Stiles, said he was also impressed by how many people showed up, considering the party's election result.

The Bad

Parts of the campaign debrief were dedicated to breakout sessions to allow party members to have regional or policy-specific discussions.

However, policy-focused breakout sessions weren't as productive as hoped, since members often gravitated back to talking about the campaign's overall strategy, one source said.

In sessions with members from southwestern Ontario and northern Ontario, Perez said other members complained that the party's platform was too GTA-centric, which candidates — specially first-timers — struggled to sell to voters. This was also reflected in feedback Liberal candidates gave the party in a report, which QP Briefing obtained and published this story about on Monday.

"The way we talked about elements of the platform needed more regional nuance, recognizing that some policies simply weren't applicable outside of urban centres," the candidates' report said.

"Given the historic roots of our party in rural Ontario, and our historic strength, when we have been in government, in northern Ontario, we need to have a more creative strategy to address these differences," it added.

Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives was the only party to make gains outside of cities in the 2022 election. The stagnant Liberals failed to win any mainly rural seats, while the PCs used increased rural and suburban support to take about a one-quarter chunk out of the Official Opposition NDP's caucus.

The party received similar feedback from its candidates about failing outside of urban centres after the 2018 election.

One of the more tense sessions at the Liberals' campaign debrief was an open Q&A for members with five high-ranking members from their campaign team. Some members were disappointed by its length — even though the senior campaign members agreed to extend the session — as well as by some of the team's responses to questions they received about things including strategic choices, how riding resources were used, and the technical tools that the campaign employed. (QP Briefing published this story on that session on Monday.)

— With files from Aidan Chamandy.

This story was updated at 4:18 p.m. with more precise information about the Ontario Liberal Party's finances.

The good and the bad heard at the Ontario Liberals’ campaign debrief

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