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TORONTO — The Ontario Liberals will look to hold their third leadership race since 2020, following a resignation announcement by Bonnie Crombie, who received a weak show of support at the party’s annual general meeting.
Crombie, who won the party’s last leadership race in late 2023, said in a statement that she believes it is the best decision for the party to facilitate an orderly transition toward a leadership vote and she plans to resign upon the selection of a new leader.
“I looked out at our audience today and thought about all the conversations I’ve had over the last few days … conversations with Ontario Liberals who see that the future of this province is bright and who are ready to make sure it happens with us in the driver’s seat,” she wrote.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure that opportunity is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition. This is about the very thing that unites us all.”
Delegates at the AGM voted on whether to hold a new leadership race and 57 per cent voted no.
It was more than the hair over the 50 per cent required by the Ontario Liberal constitution for Crombie to stay on as leader, but some party members had been calling for her to step down if she received less than 66 per cent.
Crombie initially said she planned to stay on as leader, adding that a leadership race right now would do more harm than good for the party. However, just a few hours later, she reversed course.
Liberal caucus member Adil Shamji said Crombie met earlier with the caucus as she faced the huge decision.
“We had an opportunity to give our advice, and I know she took all of that into consideration and needed some time to think, and ultimately arrived at the decision that she made, which I think is the right one,” he said.
Caucus colleague John Fraser said Crombie did the right thing and put the party first.
“Bonnie understands that our cause is a collective one,” he said. “Not one of personal ambition.”
Premier Doug Ford thanked Crombie for her years of public service as a member of Parliament, mayor of Mississauga and leader of the Liberals.
“Politics demands a lot of personal sacrifice, including time away from family and loved ones,” he wrote in a statement. “I want to wish Bonnie all the best in her next chapter.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney also thanked Crombie for her years of public service, calling her time in office “a career of dedication and accomplishment.”
“She’s already made enormous contributions, and I look forward to her next chapters,” Carney wrote on social media.
Crombie, who first entered politics at age 47 after a long business career, has also served as a Liberal MP, Mississauga, Ont., city councillor, and Mississauga mayor. She also announced Saturday that she is getting a “promotion” to grandma, with her daughter expecting a baby.
The AGM was the party’s first since the February election that saw them increase their seat count from nine to 14 and regain official party status, but also saw them fail to form Official Opposition and left their leader without a seat in the legislature.
Noah Parker, an organizer with a group of Liberals who had been urging a leadership race, said while Crombie did a lot of great work for the party, he is looking forward to working on electing a new leader.
“Just look at what happened with our federal Liberals, and the complete excitement and new flurry of fundraising and donors, and of course, the complete 180 of the electoral prospects of that party as a result of a leadership contest,” said Parker, who was also one of several Liberals elected Sunday to the party’s executive council.
“The issues are fast evolving, and our province is fast deteriorating and so I think people in the electorate and Ontario Liberals will relish an opportunity to set a new course, one of which that can beat Doug Ford.”
The second-place finisher in the 2023 leadership contest, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, had also been calling for “renewal” at the top of the provincial party. He hinted in a note to supporters over the summer that he may be interested in another crack at the leadership, writing he would make his “ultimate decision once the members have made theirs.”
Parker said he would like to see Liberal MP Karina Gould run for the job.
Other contenders in the 2023 race included Liberal MP and former provincial cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi, and former Liberal MP and current provincial caucus member Ted Hsu.
As Crombie told party members when she won that 2023 leadership and in a speech Saturday to the AGM, she did not come from a life of privilege, and has worked hard for every opportunity.
Her father was an alcoholic and her parents split up when she was three, with her mother moving them into one of the rooms in a rooming house her grandparents ran in west Toronto.
Crombie began her career in the corporate world, working for McDonald’s, Disney, the Insurance Bureau of Canada, and she started a cosmetics company with a classmate from her MBA program. She and her then-husband lived in Cambridge, Mass., Los Angeles and Vancouver before returning to settle in Mississauga.
She worked on a few political campaigns before putting her own name forward.
Crombie served as MP for Mississauga-Streetsville from 2008 to 2011. After her electoral defeat, the powerhouse Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion encouraged Crombie to run for a seat on city council.
Crombie would go on to succeed McCallion as mayor, after McCallion retired at age 94, and serve three terms at the helm of the fast-growing city west of Toronto.
In that role she became a vocal opponent of Ford on some issues and pitched that during the 2023 leadership race as one of her strengths.
“I’ve had the opportunity to go toe to toe with Doug Ford on many occasions, and I know that I rankle him,” she said during the party’s first official debate.
“And I think that’s a pretty good thing.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2025.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
