Could Mississauga mayor Crombie become the next provincial Liberal Leader?

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Published December 1, 2022 at 9:28 pm

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The mayor of Mississauga had topped a recent poll of who Ontario voters would prefer to see lead the Ontario Liberal Party.

The poll, conducted by Probit, shows Mayor Bonnie Crombie with a substantial lead over her competition.  She tops the poll at 28 per cent well above the second runner-up.

Crombie was first cited as the party’s next potential leader after the Liberals’ election loss in 2018. That election ushered in the Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford into a majority.

The Liberals meanwhile fell from 55 seats to seven and lost official party status in Queens Park. Crombie, once the MP of Mississauga – Streetsville, was then cited as a possible new leader after the resignation of Kathleen Wynne.

However, Crombie was elected as Mayor of Mississauga in 2014 with the endorsement of her long-standing predecessor Hazel McCallion. She next claimed more than 75 per cent of the vote in the 2018 mayoral election and was elected to a third term last month.

The runner-up on the Probit poll, at 13 per cent, is Scarborough-Guildwood MPP Mitzie Hunter. She first went to Queens Park in 2013 and served as Education Minister and Advanced Education Minister under Wynne. She ran for the Liberal leadership in 2019 and placed fourth.

Coming in third, at 12 per cent, on the poll is Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, MP of Toronto’s Beaches-East York riding. When first elected, he was the youngest person to gain a federal seat in the GTA. He has been noted for his independence in parliament, setting the record for voting against his own party.

Fourth, at eight per cent, comes Jeff Lehman, the former mayor of Barrie. Lehman served as Barrie’s mayor for 12 years between 2010 and 2022 and sat as the chair of Ontario’s Big City Mayors. He is known for his push to create Alectra Energy which now serves  Mississauga, Hamilton, Markham, Vaughan, and St. Catharines.

Fifth in the poll at seven per cent is Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi. He has served as Ottawa Center’s provincial representative, Ontario’s Attorney General, Minister of Safety and Corrections and Minister of Labour.

These hoped for candidates are joined by;

  • Navdeep Bains, MP of Mississauga – Malton and Innovation Minister at six per cent
  • Michael Coteau, MP of Don Valley East at five per cent
  • Maurizio Bevilacqua, former mayor of Vaughan at three per cent
  • Arif Virani, MP of Parkdale – High Park at three per cent
  • Ted Hsu, MPP of Kingston and the Islands at three per cent
  • Stephen Blais, MPP of Orleans at two per cent, and
  • Yvan Baker, MP of Etobicoke Centre at two per cent

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