Bonnie Crombie wants to build back ‘Liberal trust’ as new Ontario leader | Power and Politics

The Ontario Liberal Party elected its new leader over the weekend Bonnie cromy is our new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party Miss Saga Bonnie cromie takes the Reigns of the Ontario liberals after two straight election flops for that party she is now tasked with rebuilding a

Party that sits in third place what was expected to be a smooth victory for the front runner turned out to be a close night and cromby reached the threshold to become party leader after the third and final round of balloting she beat out liberal MPS nin Smith and Yasser Nai

And liberal MPP ped Shu newly elected Ontario Liberal Party leader Bonnie cromby joins us now miss cromby welcome to the show and uh congratulations thank you David uh this was a win but a narrower than expected wind uh what does the margin tell you about the party you now have to unite

And Lead yes it shows that we had a very competitive race and that our party was engaged and it’s all very very positive I intend to bring everyone together because together we’re a very formidable team the the party made a lot uh about the 100,000 people who signed up to vote

In this race but only 23,000 people voted in the end so what does that say about the true level of enthusiasm in the liberal party right now well you it’s not untypical of even a municipal election race sometimes you see results in the 20% but the good news is we did sign up

103,000 people and we have their names phone numbers emails so we will be getting them engaged with you know participating at the local level fundraising Etc but if they if they didn’t vote in a leadership well what makes you so optimistic that they can be involved in sort of the grunt workk of

Politics uh between now and the next election I think there were a lot of reasons people didn’t come out conflicts weather work I’ll tell you I was in a tobico center greeting people saying hello and A girlfriend of mine walked in and I said oh my goodness Maya have you

Moved from Miss aaga she said no Bonnie I couldn’t make it yesterday in Miss Saga so I came to vote for you today Sunday in a tobico instead and I said unfortunately that’s not what the rules allow so there was some confusion that there were two days available to vote

Okay but but it’s still for for More than 70% of the eligible people who who you know municipal election I know use that comparison but people are there automatically in a municipality they had to actively sign up for this and they did that but then didn’t participate so

Is just a lot of inflation in the actual membership numbers people just signed up without having any intent to to follow through when I look at previous selection results for leadership races this is significantly higher than the last two times and the good news is that we do now have 103,000 people registered

To be Liberal Party members David so you know we’re going to be cultivating them motivating them to get out and participate and of course we’ll be sending them notices to help us fundraise as well so that we can win in the next election it it took the maximum

Number of ballots uh for you to win given the size of the field and that happened because Nate ersen Smith and Yasser Nai the two liberal MPS they United to try to stop you uh asking their supporters to rank them first and second on each other’s ballots uh and

They they they said some difficult things about you uh throughout this campaign so I wonder have you reached out to Mr ersin Smith and Mr Nai to run for you in the next election and is that possible given their efforts uh to defeat you so certainly I did have an

Opportunity to speak with yaser Nai on Saturday evening we had a very pleasant conversation I haven’t reached out to Nate yet but I certainly will it’s only you know two days later uh we have the Ontario Liberal Party Christmas uh Caucus meeting Christmas party this evening so perhaps he’ll be there I’ll

Have the opportunity to speak with him um there are lots of opportunities that I’ll have to speak with all of them I’m I am meeting Ted in about one hours time so we’ll be sitting down with all of them and having those conversations okay so so Ted Shu who’s is is already a

Member provincially um will you reach out to nersen Smith though to run for you do you want him and run for you in the next election as I said to you it takes every liberal to come together to beat Doug Ford in 2026 and together combined we make a very formidable team

So of course I will okay so right now uh you are the Ontario liberal leader and you’re also the mayor of Miss Saga one of those things has to change when are you going to step down as mayor very good and I do intend to step down

I’ve got a budget to complete at the city and at the region of Peele and then there will be some windup work to be done of course this is a very serious job it it doesn’t end in one day um you know there are a number of projects and

I’ve got to complete and wrap up some loose ends so you will see that very soon in in January of 2024 I will be stepping down okay so it’s going to happen like in a month or so it’s not going to linger into February March this is something that happens oh goodness

It’ll happen in in weeks okay but you have the challenge now of leading a party from outside the legislature right so how do you do that uh without a seat I I know that Monty mcon seat in lambden Kent Middle sex is vacant which I know

Is outside of your political area how do will you run there or will you try to lead without being a member of Queens Park so I had this conversation yesterday with John Fraser as a matter of fact about Lampton Kent Middle sex and certainly yesterday I participated

In the provincial Council where all the writing presidents um were meeting and I had the opportunity to come and give them a little rally talk and we talked about our fundraising goals Etc and I had a chance to speak to Katherine McGary and John Fraser and John has let

Me know that they have identified a candidate in that riding so perhaps that wouldn’t be the best writing for me to run in and he and I spoke about what the best approach is what’s the strategy going forward and we both agree that for me it’s to continue to sell the liberal

Brand and meet people on the ground myself so continue the tour of the small towns rural agricultural communities Northern Communities let people know who I am and how our brand is evolved and build back trust with voters so that’s what all continue to do until a more

Logical seat opens up and it would be ideal in Miss Saga or the GTA so you never know these things do do happen from time to time but how it’s going to be harder to rebuild the Ontario liberals without the benefit of being a question period every day to have that

Daily contrast with Doug Ford and and his ministers and without being in Queens Park every day I I know uh you know the getting parliamentary media isn’t everything but when you don’t have official party status and you’re the third party that that’s an important supply of political oxygen is it not

Well David I’m here on Power and politics with you today uh I don’t have trouble getting National Media or local media but I don’t intend to walk the halls of Queens Park looking for media we have very capable people at Queens Park we have a solid team of nine mpps

Who are all used to answering media questions and we’ll take a lead at Queens Park it’s more important for me to be on the ground and building back trust with voters and selling the liberal brand and letting people get to know me I think that’ll be very important going forward especially to be

Present in those small towns and Northern Communities that feel isolated uh and feel neglected and Doug Ford has neglected those communities and I want to be present and I want to listen to them I want to listen to what their needs are so I can incorporate those in

Our party platform going forward you mentioned that you spoke to Mr Fraser who of course is uh stepping down as the is the interim leader uh of the party uh you’re the biggest provincial story to come out of the convention Greg Fergus would be the biggest Ottawa story to

Come out of this convention for the video that was played of him in the speaker robes um offering his praise to Mr Frasier for his time as the leader of the Liberal Party um of Ontario there have been calls today by the block kbec W and by the Conservative Party of

Canada for Mr for Fergus to step down as Speaker of the House of Commons for that video being played saying it crossed the line of partisan political activity especially since he was filmed in the speaker’s office in his speaker robes should Greg Fergus step down as Speaker

Of the House of Commons over this look what I see is a federal Member of Parliament from Ottawa praising uh a provincial Member of Parliament also from Ottawa I don’t think there was um any malicious intent in that I think they were just you know just tipping the

Hat to say job well done to my friend and colleague at the provincial level both from neighboring ridings in the Ottawa region so no foul play there even though it was done in the speaker robes in the speaker’s office and that job is supposed to be completely nonpartisan well agreed you know

Probably um not the best idea to do it in the speaker’s robes but I don’t think there was any Mal intent I think he was just paying tribute to a friend who had done it an exceptional job there has been a suggestion just as a final Point

Miss cromby that this was never meant to be played publicly at convention have you gotten any explanation from the party that this was meant to be a private video rather than something that was played publicly and in the end does that really matter when it comes to whether Greg Fergus should have done

This or not yeah no I don’t have any indication from the party I haven’t spoken to them about it okay Bonnie cromby uh the newly elected leader of the Ontario Liberal Party thank you for your time today thanks thanks for having me David

After a tight election Saturday, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. She talks about her plans for the party as it prepares to take on Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

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