Some commentary on NES and other potential candidates:
Months after Bonnie Crombie reluctantly signalled her intention to quit following a lukewarm performance review, the party has yet to schedule a leadership race.
www.thestar.com
The presumptive front-runner in the undeclared race is Beaches—East York MP Nate Erskine-Smith, who finished second to Crombie in the 2023 leadership contest and spent much of last year organizing against her.
Writing on his Substack blog last week, Erskine-Smith sounded bullish.
“The biggest question mark for 2026 is the Ontario Liberal leadership race. It’s still a huge opportunity to make a difference, which is why I ran the last time,” the federal backbencher wrote.
“It is past time for change. We shouldn’t accept the Ford government’s obvious mediocrity, incompetence, and corruption, even if it’s folksy,” he added.
“We don’t know the timeline of the race yet, but we’re now building a team. One that is ready to run, win, and govern together. Everything depends on the strength of that team, including the decision to join the race when it’s officially called.”
But Erskine-Smith, a self-styled maverick, has rankled some Grits both with his undermining of Crombie and when he complained of feeling “disrespected” when Prime Minister Mark Carney dumped him from cabinet last year.
The last-place candidate from the 2023 leadership, Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu said he won’t run again while Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East, told the Star he has “not decided yet” after dropping out early last time to back Crombie.
Expressions of interest have come from new MPPs Lee Fairclough (Etobicoke—Lakeshore) and Rob Cerjanec (Ajax), both of whom wrested their ridings from the Tories in last February’s election that returned Premier Doug Ford to power with a rare third consecutive majority.
“One of the reasons people have been reaching out to me is because it’s been eight years since we had an Ontario Liberal leader with a seat in the legislature,” said Fairclough, a former hospital president.
“There’s a lot of Liberals that would like to see that.”
Cerjanec, a former business consultant and municipal political aide, said he is giving “serious” consideration to a bid.
“From conversations with members across the province, it’s clear there’s a strong appetite to choose a leader this year and get to work rebuilding and mobilizing the grassroots of the party ahead of the next provincial election.”
Mike Crawley, a former banker and energy executive who was a political staffer at Queen’s Park in the 1990s and later federal Liberal party president, is also contemplating a run, having launched an exploratory website.
Dr. Andrew Boozary, founding executive director of the Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine and a former political adviser to Wynne’s Liberals between 2014 and 2016, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate.
Liberal MP Karina Gould (Burlington), who had been pondering a jump to provincial politics, told her constituents last month she would remain on the federal scene.
www.thewhig.com
