As Bonnie Crombie faces down a vote this weekend on her future as leader of the Ontario Liberals, party members have received a flurry of robocalls and fliers urging them to stick with her.
Through the weekend at their annual general meeting, Liberals will vote on whether to trigger a new leadership race and sack Crombie or allow her to stay on to fight another election against Doug Ford.
With her future on the line, calls and flyers attributed to Crombie have asked the party to stick with her.
“It’s Bonnie Crombie, Ontario Liberal Leader,” a robocall recorded and shared with Global News begins.
“This weekend, over 2,000 Liberals will gather in Toronto for our annual general meeting … I hope I can count on your support. Please vote no to a leadership contest at the AGM. I look forward to seeing you this weekend in Toronto.”
Campaign literature also appears to have been sent out. “The choice is clear,” one flyer says. “Waste time and money on another divisive leadership race, or keep building on Bonnie’s record of success.”
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It’s unclear exactly who is funding the campaign or where it has come from. The number quoted to call in the robocall is not connected, while messages to Crombie and to her leadership campaign email went unanswered.
A spokesperson for the Liberal Party said it was not paying for the promotion.
A push to stave off a leadership election and keep Crombie at the helm of the party has been underway for months.
Crombie spent much of the summer touring the province to meet local Liberal members at barbecues, restaurants and pubs. She has touted the 30 per cent of the vote she won in February’s snap election and the 14 seats she secured as signs of progress.
A recent campaign debrief, however, said the party’s election strategy had been disorganized, focused on the wrong message and had allowed Ford to “define himself.”
Speaking ahead of the AGM and the vote on her future, Crombie accepted responsibility for the defeat in February — but said she was the right person to take the party forward.
She acknowledged that her party should have redirected the campaign’s focus once it became clear the Liberal Party’s priority — health care and access to family doctors — wasn’t gaining traction.
“We tried to reframe the ballot question, obviously,” Crombie said. “Not pivoting was certainly a lesson learned, and in retrospect it seems clear, but at the time we knew that our messaging on health care was our strongest suit.”
Thousands of party delegates — the most in its history, according to one of the pro-Crombie flyers — will spend Friday and Saturday voting on whether to call a new leadership race. The final results are expected to be announced on Sunday.
The open question, in Liberal circles, is what threshold does Crombie need to secure a win. While the party constitution says Crombie requires 50 per cent plus one to claim technical victory, the reality might be much different.
While Crombie told Global News she is “extremely confident” about the results, she rebuffed repeated questions about what constitutes a majority.
“I’m not going to be tied to a single number. I will know if I have the support of the party,” Crombie said.
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