Bonnie Crombie to face Liberal leadership test as party members gather for annual general meeting

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie speaks on stage at her campaign headquarters during the Ontario provincial election in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, February 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO — Ontario Liberals are set to hold a leadership vote this weekend, amid grumbling from some members about whether Leader Bonnie Crombie is the right person to take them back into government.

The party is gathering in Toronto for its annual general meeting, its first since the mixed-bag February election that saw them regain official party status but left their leader without a seat in the legislature.

Members will be voting throughout the weekend, with results to be announced Sunday, on whether to hold another leadership race two years after the last one or to stick with Crombie at the helm.

The New Leaf Liberals, which describes itself as a grassroots group, has formed to urge a new leadership race. Former provincial leadership challenger Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith has also urged “renewal” at the top.

But Crombie said she is feeling confident heading into the voting.

“I have support of the executive council, I have support of my team, the caucus, and we’ll see what the membership says,” Crombie said in an interview.

“You will never get 90 or 100 per cent because there’s always dissenters.”

What that magic number is may be harder to pin down. The Liberal constitution says she needs 50 per cent plus one to stay on, but the New Leaf Liberals are calling for Crombie to resign if she receives any less than 66 per cent support for her to stay on as leader.

Crombie herself is not committing to any particular course of action beyond what the constitution says.

“It’ll be up to me to judge ... if I have the support of the majority of the party behind me,” she said.

Noah Parker, one of the New Leaf organizers, said 66 per cent is the minimum threshold by which a leader should consider they have the support of their party members.

“If (Crombie) can get that command of the party, and the vast majority of Ontario Liberals support her then so will we, but if she can’t, then we should move on as a party and find a leader who can,” Parker said in an interview.

“We’re not shy to say that we think a leadership race would be good for our party, good for our Liberal movement, and would better our chances at beating Doug Ford.”

Parker said the group is not — as some have suggested — a front for Erskine-Smith, who made waves in Liberal land over the summer with a call for leadership change, particularly if Crombie doesn’t get at least two-thirds support in the AGM vote.

Erskine-Smith acknowledged in a note to supporters that his criticisms of Crombie’s leadership are not devoid of self-interest.

“I’ve always said I want to make the biggest difference I can in politics,” he wrote.

“It’s why I ran for the provincial leadership in 2023 and why I made the difficult decision to run again for my federal seat back in December, with the threat posed by Trump and with a view to getting housing built. As I’ve already told the media, I’ll make my ultimate decision once the members have made theirs.”

Erskine-Smith came second to Crombie in the 2023 provincial leadership contest, which was also marked by tension between the two politicians.

He raised Crombie’s age — 63 at the time — in the context of suggesting he, in his late 30s, would have more longevity as a party leader if the Liberals’ path back to victory was to take more than one more election cycle. She penned an op-ed calling his remarks ageist.

Crombie said she has not spoken to Erskine-Smith about his missive this summer, nor has she had conversations with the New Leaf Liberals. But some of her supporters did.

A petition they’re circulating calls for several steps toward party renewal aside from what they want to see on the leadership front, and many of those concerns are already being addressed, Crombie said.

She pointed to a recent campaign debrief report as a roadmap for renewal. It recommended more consistent fundraising, volunteer co-ordination and nominations between campaign periods.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press