EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has lost her Mississauga East—Cooksville seat to Progressive Conservative challenger Silvia Gualtieri.
Despite this setback, Crombie told the crowd gathered at the Mississauga Convention Centre that she will not be resigning, and plans to continue leading the party, which regained official party status Thursday night.
“People counted us out. They said the Ontario Liberal Party was dead. Tonight we proved them wrong,” said Crombie during her speech to supporters which did not acknowledge her loss in Mississauga East—Cooksville.
Going into the election, Crombie was betting on her popularity as former mayor of Mississauga to carry her to victory. In 2022, Crombie won the mayoral election with a whopping 78 per cent of the popular vote.
As such, Crombie did not spend much time in Mississauga East—Cooksville during the campaign period.
Gaultieri, meanwhile, enjoyed some name recognition as the mother-in-law of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown.
Since becoming leader in December 2023, Crombie has relied on parliamentary leader John Fraser to lead the Liberal caucus at the legislature while she dedicated much of her time to rebuilding the party away from Queen’s Park.
Crombie’s loss leaves the Liberals, once again, with a leader who cannot participate in question period or debate inside the legislature. When former party leader Steven Del Duca failed to win his seat in Vaughan-Woodbridge during the 2022 provincial election, he resigned as leader on election night.
Crombie, however, says she is not going anywhere.
“Ontario, I’m here. I am with you and I commit to you today that I will stay on as Ontario Liberal leader, so that I can keep on fighting for you,” said Crombie as supporters cheered at the Liberal election night event.
The silver lining for the Liberals was winning the minimum 12 seats in the legislature to gain official party status — what’s referred to as a “recognized party.” Since the 2018 election, only the PCs and NDP have had official party status at the legislature.
Having official party status will make a big difference for the Liberals’ day-to-day work at the legislature. They will get more questions during question period, equal time with the PCs and NDP to participate in debates and regain a spot on the legislature’s Board of Internal Economy.
But perhaps most importantly of all, the Liberals will once again receive funding from the legislature to help pay for research, staff salaries and other expenses. The Liberals have had to make do without this money since 2018.
“The Ontario Liberal Party is back to official party status. But it gets better. We increased our share of the vote substantially to 30 per cent — double digits over the NDP,” said Crombie.
“This is a building block for us. It is momentum for us to push forward and grow. So tonight, let’s celebrate our new MPPs and our coming back to party status, so tomorrow we can get back to work making sure those other guys are doing their jobs.”
One Liberal staffer The Trillium spoke to is already considering running Crombie in the next available byelection, noting how frequently such races are held under the PCs.
The PCs won their third majority government on Thursday, while the NDP maintained their position as official Opposition.
All other party leaders won their seats in the legislature.
