Bonnie Crombie is out as Ontario Liberal Leader after scoring a weak mandate in a leadership review, as insiders and experts say the party will now continue a difficult rebuild while once again beginning the fractious process of choosing a new party chief.
Crombie resigned after receiving 57 per cent support in the mandatory review of delegates at a party gathering in Toronto. That came months after the the Liberals finished a disappointing third in seat count in the snap provincial election which saw Premier Doug Ford cruise to a majority government.
Initially, Crombie signalled at the convention on Sunday that she planned to stay on, but after meeting with the party executive she issued a statement hours later announcing her exit.
“Even though I received a majority of support from the delegates, I believe it is the best decision for the Ontario Liberal Party to facilitate an orderly transition towards a leadership vote,” she said in a statement.
Crombie spent the summer criss-crossing the province in an effort to sew up delegate support ahead of the pivotal vote. It came as internal divisions within the party began to surface and former leadership rivals and some party members called for her ouster.
And a campaign debrief document released early last week was critical of Crombie and her team’s strategy during the writ period. A three-member committee dissected the party’s finish, lauding the improved seat count and work to re-gain official party status.
But they also criticized multiple aspects of the campaign team’s strategy and communications, including the decision to focus on health care as the central theme of their platform and allowing Ford to frame the vote as a fight with U.S. President Donald Trump over his tariff policies.
Will Bonnie Crombie stay on as Liberal leader? The party will decide
Crombie’s resignation means the party will face their third leadership race since 2018. The Ontario Liberals, who were in power for more than 14 years until they were defeated in 2018, have placed third in three straight elections. The party could not immediately say when it will launch the new race.
Liberal strategist Charles Bird said he expects the party will move quickly to find Crombie’s successor.
“I think there’d probably be an emphasis on not waiting two years to elect a new leader,” he said. “Not finding ourselves in a similar position as we did earlier this year, in terms of the leader really, not necessarily having enough time to establish herself with the people of Ontario.”
Bird, who is a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies, said he also thinks the party may look outside the current 14 member caucus at Queen’s Park for potential candidates.
“My sense is that the party might look for some new blood, someone who could really stimulate interest among Ontarians in terms of a new way forward,” he said.
Chief amongst Crombie’s critics were federal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, who came a close second to her in the 2023 leadership race. Erskine-Smith said in July that he had not decided if he would run if Crombie was forced out.
“A new leadership race would attract talent, it would attract contributions, it would attract public attention, and that’s exactly what we need if we’re going to renew this party in a serious way,” he said.
Erskine-Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Crombie and Erskine-Smith represent different political leanings within the Ontario Liberal Party and different camps struggling for control, said University of Ottawa political science professor Geneviève Tellier. Crombie tried to pull the party and its policies back to the centre of the political spectrum, while Erskine-Smith would pull the party to the left, she said.
“I think they need to have a big, big debate within the Liberal Party about its identity,” she said.
“One thing that was raised in the (campaign debrief) report was people in the field were not able to say to voters why they should vote for Liberal.”
The campaign debrief also laid bare a number of systemic problems within the Liberal Party. Party volunteers in the north and rural areas felt unsupported by the central team, who were seen as too Toronto-focused.
The report also highlighted the concerns over the party’s “starvation posture” on spending between election campaigns and the fact that the party’s bases supporters are aging.
“We are not attracting enough young people, unions, ethno-cultural communities and policy-motivated groups to volunteer like we used to,” the report says.
Nathaniel Arfin, co-founder of the New Leaf Liberals, a group which called for Crombie to step aside, said the party has not done enough to address these systemic issues since 2018.
“We’ve seen in the post mortem from our elections in 2018, in 2022, and now again in 2025, the same kinds of problems,” he said. “Our inability to retain volunteers, our inability to engage with people outside of the GTA and Toronto, our inability to resonate on issues that matter to more Ontarians.”
“That’s what we need, that’s what we’re going to have to move forward with,” he added.
While party members may have been dissatisfied with Crombie’s leadership, a new leadership contest isn’t guaranteed to pull the party together, Trent University political science professor Cristine de Clercy said. It may further inflame internal divisions that have existed for some time, she said.
“Along with the normal rebuilding process that they’re already engaged in, this is yet another turnover, yet another set of potential frictions and fractions within the party that may well compromise their ability to be competitive in the next election,” she said.
