Ontario Liberals have been thrust into yet another debate around our party’s future leadership.
In mid-July, former leadership candidate Nate Erskine-Smith suddenly reappeared on the Ontario political scene to signal his interest in the party’s top job. But only after being dumped from Mark Carney’s cabinet.
In a July 18 email widely circulated to party members, Erskine-Smith launched an all-out assault on Bonnie Crombie’s leadership ahead of a mandatory leadership review at the party’s annual general meeting (AGM) in September.
Under the party’s constitution, the leader must face a leadership review following an election loss and must win that vote by at least 51 per cent to remain leader.
Erskine-Smith now insists Crombie must secure at least two thirds support from party delegates attending the AGM. The maverick MP’s bombshell has destabilized the party just as its gaining real traction on the heels of a prolonged period in the political wilderness.
I’ve been a card-carrying Ontario Liberal, campaign volunteer and staff member in government. I’ve bore witness to the party’s highest and lowest points over the past 15 years. I’ve seen up close the devastating impacts of the party’s organizational and financial challenges in recent years.
The results of last winter’s election were no doubt disappointing. They fell short of party members’ hopes and expectations: a point Crombie has repeatedly acknowledged on numerous occasions in the election’s aftermath.
Yet despite the results, there are three reasons why Crombie has earned the right to continue leading Ontario’s Liberals.
First, under Crombie’s leadership, the party has made measurable gains. On election night, Crombie secured 30 per cent popular support, won five new seats and restored official party status in the Legislature.
For the first time in seven years, the party boasts a caucus services bureau that provides communications, legislative and research support to MPPs and the leader.
Crombie’s leadership has also represented a fundraising boon for a party that was once on the brink of bankruptcy. Halfway through 2025, Crombie’s Liberals have already raised $5 million nearing the $6 million the party raised in all of 2024.
This is a major financial milestone that underscores the party’s growing momentum and grassroots support under Crombie.
Second, Crombie is determined to build on these gains through ushering in sweeping party reforms that will set up Liberals for major electoral gains come the next election.
Since last spring, Crombie has criss-crossed the province meeting with dozens and dozens of local riding associations who do the heavy lifting come election time.
She’s also made transformative commitments to re-engage the grassroots through opening candidate nominations years early, leverage technology and AI to modernize the party, host a major policy conference by 2027 and overhaul the party’s organizational, membership and communications arms.
It’s an ambitious agenda for party reform, but one that is integral to the party’s future and eventual return to government.
Finally, a leadership race at this moment would distract Liberals from holding Doug Ford’s government to account just as the party is emerging as the indisputable alternative to a tired and ethically challenged third term government.
Ontarians deserve an opposition party that will take Ford’s Conservatives to task for their failed record: a job the Official Opposition NDP have consistently failed at since 2018.
Under Ford’s watch, public education and healthcare are chronically underfunded while Ontario’s economy is on life support. Two and a half million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor. Twelve hundred emergency rooms shuttered last year while wait times for surgeries and diagnostic tests continued to rise.
Ontario has the second highest unemployment rate in Canada at nearly eight per cent. While other provinces gain construction and manufacturing jobs, Ontario lost 24,000 construction jobs and hundreds of manufacturing roles in 2024 ahead of this year’s perilous trade war.
As the housing affordability crisis worsens, Ford’s government falls further behind in meeting its targets. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says Ford’s own housing plan isn’t delivering half the number of new housing units Ontario desperately needs.
A divisive leadership race at this inflection point in my party’s history would stall our momentum, hinder our ability to hold Doug Ford to account for his failed record, and possibly set us back years ahead of a crucial election in 2028 or 2029.
I’ve come to know and admire Bonnie Crombie in recent years. She’s a genuine leader that has always been guided by the public good, even when that’s come at a political cost to her personally.
Crombie left an excellent job as Mississauga’s mayor because she feels strongly that Ontarians deserve so much better.
My party’s leadership isn’t a consolation prize for dashed political aspirations, nor should it be treated as a safe landing spot for someone whose time in the federal cabinet was cut short.
Bonnie Crombie has earned the right to continue leading Ontario’s Liberals. I look forward to expressing confidence in her leadership come September.
Andrew Perez is a public affairs strategist and grassroots Liberal activist. He worked on the 2014 and 2022 Ontario Liberal central party campaigns, and volunteered on Bonnie Crombie’s successful 2023 leadership bid.
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