LILLEY: Crombie seeks job security, changes to Liberal constitution

Changes proposed to Ontario Liberal Party constitution to protect leader even after a loss.

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Published Sep 13, 2024  •  3 minute read

Bonnie Crombie stands with Ontario Liberal caucus members as she talks to the media at the Queens Park in Toronto on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Photo by Chris Young /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Bonnie Crombie is looking for a little job security by changing the Ontario Liberal Party constitution.

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Ontario Liberals will gather in London next week and will be asked to change how and when leadership reviews happen.

“It’s concerning,” said one longtime senior Liberal, who asked not to be identified.

Right now, the Ontario Liberal Party is required to have a leadership review within two years of a general election. Under the changes proposed, the party would only require a review if the Liberals did not form a majority government, and they lost 15% of the seats they held at the start of the election.

That would mean that the Liberals, who currently have nine seats at Queen’s Park, could be reduced to eight seats and Crombie would keep her job.

“She is trying to turn the Liberal Party into the Bonnie Crombie Party,” one disgruntled Liberal member said via email. “Essentially, she is planning ahead for a scenario where she only wins 9-12 seats and trying to avoid having to answer for that result.”

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Crombie won the leadership of the party last December in a race that was tighter than expected. She was touted as someone who would breathe fresh air into the party and kickstart fundraising.

That hasn’t exactly happened.

Crombie’s Liberals have been stuck in the polls for the last two years. The latest Abacus Data poll shows them at 26% voter support, unchanged from when she took over, while Doug Ford’s PC Party is backed by 42% of voters and the NDP under Marit Stiles sits at 21%.

On the fundraising front, the Liberals are trailing the NDP, according to official figures pulled recently from Elections Ontario. As of last week, the PC Party had raised $3.7 million, the NDP raised $721,548 and the Liberals raised $714,214.

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Parties often claim to have raised more, the rules in Ontario don’t require donations of less than $200 to be reported, but those figures can’t be verified. That Crombie and the Liberals are trailing Stiles and the NDP in official tally fundraising should be worrisome for the party.

All this to say, Liberal Party members would be wise to reject these changes to the leadership review when it comes up for a vote.

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There are sensible changes in how a leadership election is to be held under party rules, including forbidding an interim leader from being a candidate. As written though, the changes would protect Crombie, and any future leader, from facing the party membership after a disastrous election result.

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The party’s annual general meeting starts on Sept. 20, the day after the byelection in Bay of Quinte to replace recently retired Ford cabinet minister Todd Smith. The choice of the byelection date was no accident with the PCs hoping to keep what has been a safe seat and pour salt in Liberal wounds as their convention starts.

The Liberals are hopeful that their candidate, Sean Kelly, can defeat the PC candidate Tyler Allsopp.

The PCs have represented the area since Smith first won the seat in 2011, but it was Liberal for many years before that. In the last few elections, the NDP have been the challenger to the PCs, not the Liberals.

A win in that byelection would give the Liberals a reason to party all weekend – a loss would put a cloud over the event.

It’s interesting that Crombie and her team are attempting to make these leadership changes to insulate her from a challenge so early in her tenure and at a time when her leadership appears stalled.

The polling improvements have not happened and fundraising is flat.

As they gather in London, some Liberals might be wishing they could have a leadership review of Crombie right now.

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