Can Bonnie Crombie breathe life into Ontario Liberals?

Or should she just cross the aisle?

Bonnie Crombie was a guest on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin last night. Her impressive win of the mayoralty of Mississauga after the passing of legendary mayor Hazel McCallion reflected a popularity derived from straight talk, fiscal prudence, and common sense policies, and her successful re-election in the subsequent election won her even more votes with over 70% of Mississaugans voting for her continued leadership of this important Ontario city. Crombie is impressive at all levels.

In her interview with Paikin, Crombie advised she is setting up an exploratory committee to seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, a disappointing choice since the Ontario Liberal Party is moribund, often called the Minivan party since its handful of members of the Ontario legislature could all fit into one minivan. Following the disgraceful record of the federal Liberals under Justin Trudeau, the once storied Liberal party has become an embarassment to Canada and is virtually indistinguishable from the NDP on which Trudeau relies to retain power.

Crombie would make a great Premier of Ontario and should consider crossing the aisle and contesting the Conservative leadership against Doug Ford. Ford has a lot of homespun charm and a strong following in rural Ontario and has done a decent job as Premier but his record pales in comparison to Crombie’s achievements as mayor of Mississauga including her record of finding common ground with Ford on many issues. That common ground exists because despite her claim to be an “independent” and desire to lead the Ontario Liberals, her policy choices are far more centrist than Liberal and line up well with Ontario Conservatives.

Pierre Poilievre has a solid chance to put an end to the Trudeau regime in Ottawa and parallels Crombie’s policy choices which in both cases evidence more common sense than ideology. Crombie does herself no favours when claiming to be a “progressive” since that term now means supporting the existence of dozens of “genders”, imposing overtly racist concepts disguised as “diversity, equity and inclusion” when they are clearly directed at advancing the interest of one group at the expense of another based on race, sexual orientation, religion, or any of the two actual genders determined by human chromosomes rather than some ideological belief.

Crombie says she stands for fiscal prudence. In that, she is alone among Liberals in Canada. Under Trudeau, Canada has stacked up more debt since 2015 than Canada carried cumulatively since Confederation until his 2015 election and continues to spend recklessly pushing Canada to the point of unsustainable sovereign debt while burdening our children with debt repayments they will find unaffordable. Liberal policies since 2015 have caused resurgent inflation which is effectively a tax on the poorest Canadians, unaffordable housing made worse by encouraging immigration growth in excess of the infrastructure needed to house and support the welcome immigrants, and health care wait times that make Canada’s universal health care system a system devoid of care for many patients. Liberal policies have encouraged the growth of activist teachers’ unions who now use their voices to indoctrinate children into leftist ideology while their educational outcomes in reading, writing and arithmetic have withered and decayed.

Crombie has sound ideas and her vision for Ontario is one that most Ontarians share - a Province with a working health care system, a more or less balanced budget, an education system that actually prepares our children for rich and productive lives, and enough housing construction that all Ontarians can find an affordable place to live. Those ideas are central to Pierre Poilievre’s vision for Canada and diametrically opposite to the outcomes under Trudeau federally. Doug Ford has on balance been a good Premier, but Crombie could be a great one. To do that, she has to drop the idea that the Liberal “brand” is of value - today it is more like Studebaker than Mercedes or Tesla - “Liberalism” is a spent force no longer relevant in 2023.