Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie said that she will not be asking any MPP from her party to resign from their seat so she can be re-elected in a byelection.
The Ontario Liberal leader – who lost her seat in February’s provincial election – says that she will not pursue one of the 14 seats in ridings that elected Liberals. She will instead pursue a new seat for the Liberals once another seat is made available.
“I will not ask any of my incredible caucus members to step down,” she Crombie. “I will, at the right time, find a seat.”
In the provincial election, Crombie ran in the riding of Mississauga East––Cooksville, hoping that her record as a three-term mayor of Mississauga would boost her party’s chances in the city.
However, Crombie lost her riding by 3.4% to Progressive Conservative candidate Silvia Gualtieri and the Liberals failed to win any seats in Mississauga altogether. The closest the Liberals came to winning a Mississauga riding was Mississauga Erin Mills, a riding won by the PCs by 20 votes.
Crombie remains the sole leader of Ontario’s main political parties who failed to win a seat in the legislature, as Premier Doug Ford, NDP leader Marit Stiles, and Green party leader Mike Schreiner were all re-elected.
Crombie’s decision to not ask any of her MPPs to resign comes as the Liberal leader intends to position her party as the main opposition party against Ford’s PC government.
In last month’s election, the Liberals easily placed second place in the popular vote, winning 29.9 per cent of the vote to the PCs’ 43 per cent and the NDP’s 18.6 per cent. However the Liberals came third place in the legislature’s party rankings, only winning 14 seats to the PCs 80 seats and the NDP’s 27.
Crombie is calling her party the “people’s opposition” in an attempt to minimize the NDP’s status as Ontario’s Official Opposition.
“We are the people’s opposition,” she Crombie. “We are the ones who gained support right across Ontario with 30 per cent of the vote. We brought in five new members. We’re the only party to have gained strength.”