Yasir Naqvi is photographed in his campaign office in Ottawa on May 24, 2018.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Yasir Naqvi was 10 years old when his father was arrested for leading a pro-democracy march in Pakistan. He remembers visiting his father on the weekends in prison, where the elder Naqvi spent nine months in custody. A guard tried to persuade Yasir to urge his father to confess, but the young boy refused.
“I remember telling this guy … ‘My father did the right thing and he will not sign anything,’” Mr. Naqvi said.
Four years later, his parents moved with their three children to Canada, both leaving behind their livelihoods as lawyers in search of a better life.
“They said, ‘Our kids will be better people if we live in a free society,’” Mr. Naqvi said. “I’ve learned to not accept things the way they are. To always challenge the status quo.”
Now, the former Ontario cabinet minister and current federal Liberal MP is looking to take on a new challenge: leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Mr. Naqvi is officially launching his leadership campaign on Saturday, with rallies planned in Ottawa and Mississauga, with a pit stop in Belleville, Ont., in between.
The task will be a heavy one.
The Liberal party was nearly decimated after the 2018 election and failed to make significant seat gains in the 2022 campaign, which saw Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives re-elected with a majority. The Liberals remain in third place in the legislature, with only seven seats. Party members will vote using ranked ballots in November and learn who their new leader is Dec. 2. The next provincial general election is set for June, 2026.
For the Liberals, there are signs of a resurgence in interest: While the 2020 leadership race didn’t garner significant excitement among Liberal members – not to mention the public – this year’s contest is proving more competitive.
Toronto Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith has officially launched his campaign, while popular Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has signalled significant interest in a run. Ted Hsu, a former Liberal MP and the current MPP for Kingston and the Islands, has also joined the race, with other MPPs seriously considering.
Mr. Naqvi, a former attorney-general who also served as both corrections and labour minister in Kathleen Wynne’s government, said he plans to focus his campaign on three key areas: the economy, education and health care.
He said he wants to find the “economic opportunity” in fighting climate change, and to rebuild the education and health systems, noting a lack of family doctors and eroding capacity in emergency rooms.
“I always say I’m a practical Liberal. I really believe that the job of us as politicians is to make people’s lives easier,” said Mr. Naqvi, 50, a father of two who worked as a lawyer before entering politics. (His ex-spouse, Christine McMillan, was the Ontario Liberals’ 2022 campaign director.)
He credits his unique upbringing with fuelling his desire for change.
Arriving from Karachi at age 15, his family settled in Niagara Falls, where he quickly honed his English to fit in. His parents bought – and then lost – a motel, and became members of the local Liberal Party association. Mr. Naqvi later became president of the Ontario Liberal Party before being elected in 2007. He lost his seat to the NDP in 2018, and was re-elected federally in 2021 in Ottawa Centre.
Mr. Naqvi said his past political experience is what differentiates him from the pack.
“I have this great capacity of bringing people together and finding a common ground. I am perhaps the most experienced candidate,” Mr. Naqvi said. “I’ve been in senior cabinet roles, I know how decisions are made. But with it also comes the responsibility. I know where we made mistakes in the past. And I’ve learned from those mistakes.”
One such mistake, he said, was the previous Liberal government’s move to sell Hydro One: “That was a short-sighted decision.”
After 15 years in power, 2018 was a “change” election, he said. “People felt that they needed a change. And people are never wrong in a democracy.”
He says his party failed to connect with the grassroots during the 2022 campaign under former leader Steven Del Duca, and has become too focused on the Greater Toronto Area.
“One of the knocks against the party … is that it’s more GTA-centric. Perhaps I’m sensitive to that because I’m from Eastern Ontario,” he said.
He opposes the Ford government’s move to carve out parts of the protected Greenbelt lands, calling it the “lazy solution” to building more housing, and said people should be encouraged to live in smaller towns outside of the GTA. But while others such as Ms. Crombie have come out against Mr. Ford’s plan to build Highway 413, Mr. Naqvi said he wouldn’t cancel the project.
“Every time governments have done that in the past, I think Ontarians have paid for it. And I think Ontarians need help, not paying big cheques on wasted projects,” he said.
Mr. Naqvi’s main competition could end up being Ms. Crombie, who won her third election in Mississauga last fall with nearly 80 per cent of the vote.
He said he looks forward to a healthy competition.
“My focus is to connect with as many Liberals as possible,” he said. “That is good for the party: a competitive race.”