Ontario Liberals will soon search for their third leader in less than six years, starting by setting ground rules for would-be contenders, and senior Liberals predict there will be a lot of interest.
The upcoming leadership race was triggered over the weekend, when current Leader Bonnie Crombie announced she will step down as soon as a successor is chosen.
Crombie has held the job for less than two years, but decided to bow out after receiving a weak show of support in a leadership vote at the party's annual general meeting Sunday.
She initially vowed to stay on despite receiving just 57 per cent support, but announced her intention to resign a few hours later. Crombie had to weigh it both on an intellectual level and on an emotional level, while getting input from scores of voices, said the Liberals' parliamentary leader, John Fraser.
"Did it happen at the perfect time? No," Fraser said in an interview. "Was it the perfect decision? One hundred per cent. It took a lot of courage."
The party must now set about organizing a new leadership race. It will have to determine factors such as how long the contest is, when and how the voting will be held and entry fees.
Ontario Liberal Party president Kathryn McGarry said those decisions won't be made immediately.
"I don't expect this to happen any time soon," she said. "I'd say in the coming weeks, more details will emerge as we put the pieces in place."
People are already "starting to come out of the woodwork" to suss out potential interest, McGarry said, and the field should be a wide one.
"This is our opportunity to do a real robust search, and to really ensure that we have asked people that may have been interested, or people that don't know that they're going to be interested yet," she said.
"We look to our party's history and find that some people that weren't thinking about it were asked, asked again, and they became successful in their quest to gain a seat in the legislature."
The 2020 race in which party members chose Steven Del Duca had six contenders and the 2023 contest that saw Crombie crowned leader had five people initially running, with four staying in the race until voting day.
That was a good amount of interest for a party that was not in great shape at those times, said Fraser. He believes the prospect of becoming leader of the party now is more attractive, so interest will be high.
"The fundamentals are good," Fraser said.
The Liberals have official party status in the legislature and therefore more resources and debate time, five more seats than before, a good amount of fundraising activity and 30 per cent of the popular vote in the last election, he noted.
"I think we'll get interest, and names will start popping up soon. I'm sure people want to get out early."
One name that won't be on the ballot is Fraser's own.
"I owe people a bunch of time," he said. "I've got grandkids, and so I have to actually give them time. I think what this job will require is all of somebody's time. I'm willing to give a lot of time. I can't give it all."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.
