Ontario Liberal Bonnie Crombie speaks after winning 57 per cent of the votes in a leadership review vote at the party's annual general meeting on Sunday.Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press
The members of the Ontario Liberal caucus say they did not revolt against leader Bonnie Crombie and that it was her decision to announce her intention to resign.
In a statement sent to media Monday, the caucus expressed gratitude to Ms. Crombie for her work to improve the party’s fortunes, a day after she said she would be resigning. But the caucus members also said they did not press Ms. Crombie to step down as leader.
“We are grateful too that Bonnie asked caucus for our input and there was no revolt. This was Bonnie’s decision, and we admire Bonnie’s courage to do the right thing and put her party and her team first,” said the statement sent on behalf of all 14 MPPs.
Ms. Crombie, who became leader in December 2023 but failed to win a seat in this year’s provincial election, on Sunday evening announced she will resign after the party holds a leadership contest. Her decision followed a disappointing review from party delegates of her time at the helm, with only 57 per cent of members saying they did not want to hold a leadership race.
Ms. Crombie’s decision to step down came abruptly, and after she initially said she intended to stay on. It means the party will hold its third leadership contest since 2020, after being relegated to third place in the legislature in the 2018 election.
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The details of the upcoming leadership vote have not yet been released. But some names of possible contenders have already been floated by party membership. They include Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a critic of Ms. Crombie who came second in the 2023 Ontario Liberal leadership contest, as well as Liberal MP Karina Gould, who ran in the party’s federal leadership race earlier this year.
Speaking on Parliament Hill on Monday as the House of Commons returned from summer break, Ms. Gould said she’s thrilled to be back in Ottawa, but did not say no when asked whether she is considering a run for Ontario Liberal leader.
Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi, who came third in the 2023 Ontario Liberal leadership vote, told The Globe and Mail he won’t be running in the next contest. However, Mr. Naqvi said the next Ontario leader needs to be willing to do the hard work of rebuilding the party infrastructure in all 124 ridings.
He added that the next leader should have a seat in the Ontario legislature – but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be one of the current MPPs. For example, an MPP could step down and a potential new leader could run for that seat in a by-election.
Liberal MPP Adil Shamji, who dropped out of the 2023 leadership race to endorse Ms. Crombie, said caucus met on Sunday before the leadership results were released publicly “to give Bonnie our advice.” He declined to share what he and the others said in the meeting.
“I know it was a really tough decision for her,” he said. “Categorically, there was no caucus revolt,” he added.
Tyler Watt, an Ottawa-area MPP, also said caucus had the opportunity to give Ms. Crombie advice. “She had a tough choice to make, and it was the right one,” he said.
Long-time MPP John Fraser said that before the leadership vote, caucus members offered Ms. Crombie personal support but also advice, which he declined to share, about what to do next.
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He added that later in the day on Sunday, Ms. Crombie also met with the party’s executive council, but it took time for her to listen to the many voices offering her counsel about what to do. Mr. Fraser also said he wouldn’t be running in the leadership race.
One Liberal source familiar with the caucus discussions said members learned of Ms. Crombie’s decision to try and stay on when she announced it publicly to the room of delegates. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they are not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
More than 2,000 Ontario Liberal delegates met this weekend to discuss the result of February’s snap election, which saw Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives re-elected to a third majority government, and to vote on whether the party should hold a leadership contest within the next year.
While Ms. Crombie technically cleared the threshold required to remain leader, the result was short of the two-thirds level of support some said Ms. Crombie would need to hold the confidence of the party.
A group called New Leaf Liberals has been pushing for a change in leadership, with some saying they would support Mr. Erskine-Smith if he chooses to run.
Liberal MPP Stephen Blais said if Ms. Crombie had stayed on, it would have been a challenging process “and she needed to think about that.”
His view is that a leadership race should happen within six months to recruit candidates, develop policy and start raising money. Mr. Blais said that he will not be running.
Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman, who supported Ms. Crombie’s leadership, said she believes a vote could happen quickly, pointing to the federal Liberal party’s truncated leadership race earlier this year as an example.
She added that it’s too early for her to say if she’d be interested in running.
Noah Parker, a member of New Leaf Liberals who was voted onto the Ontario Liberal Party executive council on Sunday, said he is hoping Ms. Gould takes a stab at the provincial leadership.
With a report from Stephanie Levitz in Ottawa and Jeff Gray in Toronto