The report praised Bonnie Crombie’s fundraising acumen but found that while the campaign ‘showed signs of momentum’ and the party gained five seats, the results were not what the Liberals had hoped for.Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press
The Ontario Liberals missed the mark during this year’s provincial election campaign by focusing too narrowly on health care and allowing Doug Ford to define himself as a strong economic leader, says a new party report about the February vote.
The campaign debrief, written by a trio of long-time Ontario Liberal party members and volunteers, also says leader Bonnie Crombie’s campaign tour often made last-minute changes and lacked resources, which affected her performance and confidence.
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The 27-page report was released to party members Monday with the full support of Ms. Crombie and Ontario Liberal Party president Kathryn McGarry, it said.
It praised Ms. Crombie’s fundraising acumen but found that while the campaign “showed signs of momentum” and the party gained five seats, the results were not what the Liberals had hoped to achieve. Ms. Crombie also lost her bid for a seat in the February snap election that saw Mr. Ford’s Progressive Conservatives win a third straight majority.
The report makes a series of recommendations for the next election, including nominating candidates earlier and improving communication with local campaigns.
Ms. Crombie said the debrief was a chance to elevate the voices of the grassroots and called it a “no-holds-barred assessment of what went right and what went wrong,” with clear recommendations.
She named five takeaways from the report: stronger regional communications; earlier nominations; deeper volunteer engagement and year-round organizing; greater investment in data and digital tools; and a “clear, values-driven message about why Ontarians should choose us.”
“Doug Ford won’t be able to write his own story next time. The story we tell must be louder, truer, and heard in every corner of the province,” she said in a statement.
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The Ontario Liberal Leader is set to face the party faithful at a convention this weekend in Toronto, where delegates will vote on whether to have a leadership election.
Ms. Crombie only needs a simple majority of 51 per cent or more to survive the vote, but others have said that she’ll need to show much higher support if she wants to take on Mr. Ford’s PCs in the next campaign.
She is also facing renewed criticism from her main rival in the 2023 leadership contest, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith. He has pushed for renewal at the helm of the party and said Ms. Crombie needs at least two-thirds of support from Liberals at the convention to stay on.
The Liberals increased their seat count in the February election from 9 to 14, which allowed them to regain official party status and includes a significant bump in resources in the Ontario legislature.
But Ms. Crombie, the former mayor of Mississauga, failed in her attempt to win a seat in that city and the party remains in third place in the legislature after losing government in 2018.
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The campaign debrief says the party’s focus on health care did not align with what many local campaigns were hearing on the ground, which was concerns about affordability and economic uncertainty.
They said the campaign lacked an answer to the central question: “Why should I vote for Bonnie?”
“In particular, participants noted that we allowed Doug Ford to define himself,” the report said.
“Despite a record marked by policy reversals, scandal and underperformance, he was able to present himself as a steady hand in uncertain times. We did not sufficiently challenge this narrative or connect his actions to the instability and economic anxiety Ontarians were experiencing.”
The report also said the campaign platform “missed the mark” by focusing too narrowly on access to a family doctor.
“With affordability and job precarity dominating the public conversation, many felt the platform did not meet the moment or position the party as a credible alternative,” it said.
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The report found that many voters “did not know much” about Ms. Crombie’s values or experience, especially as a business leader. “Conservatives were able to fill this knowledge gap with significant negative advertising, especially in her home community,” it said.
However, it said that early polling and focus groups determined that Ms. Crombie could not compete with Mr. Ford on the issue of facing U.S. President Donald Trump or tariffs and that health care was identified as her strongest issue.
The report also found that Ms. Crombie’s campaign tour “faced significant challenges” because of lack of resources and last-minute changes, and that local Liberals “were often dismayed” to hear that she passed through the region without stopping, particularly in southwest Ontario.