(Toronto) Bonnie Crombie is the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.
The mayor of Mississauga, who was previously a Liberal MP in the House of Commons, was declared elected after the third round of voting, defeating Nate Erskine-Smith.
Yasir Naqvi and Ted Hsu were eliminated in the previous rounds.
Mme Crombie was in her third term as mayor of Mississauga. During her campaign, she prided herself on having “resisted Doug Ford and the conservatives.”
The most recent polls suggested that among all the candidates for leadership, it is with Mme Crombie said the Liberals had the best chance of competing with the Progressive Conservatives in the upcoming election.
The Liberals boasted of having obtained a record number of members in good standing for this leadership race, while more than 100,000 people were eligible to vote for the new leader. There were 44,000 and 38,000 members in good standing, respectively, in the two previous leadership races.
However, only 22,827 members voted in last weekend’s poll.