Bonnie Crombie has announced her resignation as the leader of the Ontario Liberals after receiving a weak show of support at the party’s annual general meeting over the weekend.
Fifty-seven percent of the delegates at the Ontario Liberal AGM voted against holding a new leadership race, exceeding the 50 percent vote requirement to stay on as leader. However, some party members had called on her to step down if she received less than 66 percent.
Crombie originally stated her intention to continue serving as leader, saying a leadership race would do more harm than good for the party, but issued a resignation announcement a few hours later.
Crombie said she intends to resign after the selection of a new leader.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure that opportunity is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition. This is about the very thing that unites us all.”
Liberal caucus member Adil Shamji said Crombie met with the caucus after the vote and she took their advice into account when deciding to resign, a move he called the “right one.”
Noah Parker, an organizer with a group of Liberals who had been pushing for a leadership race, said he is looking forward to working on electing a new leader who can help the party chart a course to unseat Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“Thank you Bonnie Crombie for your service to our party and our province,” he wrote. “You are an incredibly kind, practical, and passionate politician and leader. An unwavering voice for a better future—showing grace until the end.”
Ford also thanked Crombie for her years of public service as a member of Parliament, mayor of Mississauga, and leader of the Liberals.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also expressed his gratitude to Crombie for her years of public service, referring to her time in office as “a career of dedication and accomplishment.”
Crombie won the party’s last leadership race in late 2023. She had first entered politics in 2008 as a Liberal MP. She was defeated in the May 2011 federal election and secured a seat on Mississauga’s city council that fall. She became mayor of the city west of Toronto in 2014, a position she held until she stepped down after winning the 2023 leadership election of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Crombie, a longtime businesswoman, also announced over the weekend that she is getting a “promotion” to grandma, now that her daughter is expecting a baby.
The AGM marked the Liberal’s first gathering since the February election, during which the party increased its seat count from nine to 14 to regain official party status. The party did not secure enough support to establish itself as the official Opposition, however, and Crombie failed to win a seat in the legislature.
