Ontario Liberals back Bonnie Crombie as leader despite election loss

OTTAWA — Bonnie Crombie isn’t going anywhere.

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Despite her not winning a seat in last week’s provincial election, which saw the Liberals wind up in third place for the third time since the Doug Ford Conservatives took power, the Ontario Liberal caucus is unanimously backing keeping Crombie on as leader.

“Under her leadership, we are going back to Queen’s Park, bigger, stronger and ready to hold Doug’s feet to the fire,” John Fraser, MPP for Ottawa South, said.

Aside from having to lead her party from the legislature’s public galleries, Crombie — who resigned as mayor of Mississauga to take on leading the ailing Ontario Liberals — did garner enough seats for her party to regain official party status at Queen’s Park for the first time since they lost power in 2018.

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In a press release, the Ontario Liberals said they have raised $4 million so far in 2025, and noted that on election night, they increased their vote share by almost 400,000 ballots.

The Liberals elected five new MPPS, re-elected nine MPPS, and managed to flip both NDP and PC ridings across the province.

Those ridings include Ajax, where Rob Cerjanec unseated PC MPP Patrice Barnes, Jonathan Tsao’s victory in Don Valley North, a riding held by former PC-turned-independent MPP Vincent Ke, and Toronto-St. Paul’s, where former CP24 mainstay Stephanie Smyth won the riding from the NDP’s Jill Andrew.

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Leaders leading from the sidelines isn’t anything new in Canadian politics.

John Tory continued to lead the Ontario PC Party for two years after losing his seat in the 2007 provincial election, finally resigning after failing to win a seat in a 2009 byelection.

Chosen to lead the Alberta NDP nearly a year ago, former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi continues to lead his party from outside of the legislature, with hopes to win former leader Rachel Notley’s seat once a byelection is called later this year to replace her.

Crombie’s continued leadership of the party will be decided at an as-of-yet unannounced formal leadership review.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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