Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is taking full responsibility for the party’s recent electoral loss ahead of a crucial vote to decide her political future, but insists that she is still the best candidate to take on Doug Ford in the next provincial election.
Crombie is preparing to face party faithful at the Liberal annual general meeting this weekend in Toronto, where hundreds of delegates will vote on whether to hold a new leadership election and, in the process, give the leader her walking papers.
The meeting comes on the heels of an election campaign debrief that determined the party’s platform positions during the 2025 winter election were disconnected from voters’ priorities, dampening the Liberals’ efforts to peel voters away from Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
Ford, who ran an economy and anti-tariff-focused campaign, won 80 seats in the Ontario legislature with 41 per cent of the popular vote. Crombie, who lost her own election, won 14 seats at Queen’s Park with 30 per cent of the vote.
In an interview with Global News, Crombie acknowledged that her party should have redirected the campaign’s focus once it became clear the Liberals’ priority — health care and access to family doctors — wasn’t gaining traction.
“We tried to reframe the ballot question, obviously,” Crombie said. “Not pivoting was certainly a lesson learned, and in retrospect it seems clear, but at the time we knew that our messaging on health care was our strongest suit.”
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Crombie said public opinion polling and focus groups led the party to determine that health care was a winning ballot box question, and acknowledged that despite the lack of momentum, the Liberals were “always shifting back to where we knew our strength was.”
“In retrospect, I would love to have talked about the economy,” Crombie said.
When asked who was ultimately responsible for remaining on the health care message as Ford’s PC party sailed ahead in the polls, Crombie took the blame.
“I acknowledge that the buck stops with me. I am the leader and I’m going to be fully accountable to the hits, the misses, etc.”
Despite the loss, Crombie said she’s determined to prove to party members that she continues to be the right person to lead the Ontario Liberals into the next provincial election, currently scheduled for 2029.
“I can take on Doug Ford, and I will in the next election. We are the government in waiting, and we will win next time,” Crombie said.
In order to continue, however, Crombie must first win a crucial vote that would allow her to keep her job.
Roughly 1,800 party delegates will spend Friday and Saturday voting on whether or not to call a new leadership race. The final results are expected to be announced on Sunday.
“Everything’s at stake for her because if she doesn’t get this vote, she isn’t going to be the leader,” said Theresa Lubowitz, with LightBulb Narrative and also an Ontario Liberal party strategist.
The open question, in Liberal circles, is what threshold does Crombie need in order to secure a win. While the party constitution says Crombie requires 50 per cent plus one to claim technical victory, the reality might be much different.
“The standard that political operators tend to have is you need two-thirds to show you really have support behind you,” Lubowitz said, adding that without a clear majority, the party could descend into “infighting” that could be waged for years to come.
“Which won’t be good for the party, won’t be good for her own leadership and won’t be good, functionally, for Ontarians as well because we won’t have a strong option to go against Doug Ford.”
While Crombie told Global News she is “extremely confident” about the results, she rebuffed repeated questions about what constitutes a majority.
“I’m not going to be tied to a single number. I will know if I have the support of the party,” Crombie said.
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