‘Tired of this crap': Liberal MPPs rally around Bonnie Crombie after criticism from Nate Erskine-Smith
in the wake of the broadside against her fired by former rival Nate Erskine-Smith
.
With Crombie facing a leadership review at the Ontario Liberals' annual general meeting Sept. 12-14 in Toronto, Erskine-Smith wrote an 1,177-word email blast urging 'change in our party.'
'Of course I have an interest,' acknowledged the Beaches-East York MP,
who was runner-up in the provincial leadership in 2023
and then
briefly served as federal housing minister
before being demoted by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Erskine-Smith criticized Crombie and her team for 'trying to socialize the idea that an untenable 51 per cent mandate is an acceptable result' at the September review, insisting 'two-thirds support should be the minimum expectation.'
Sources told the Star that some Liberals have privately complained to Carney's office about the MP's intervention Friday.
But given
Erskine-Smith's public grumbling
that he felt '
disrespected
' when the prime minister removed him from cabinet, it's unlikely any such appeal would have much effect.
Liberal MPPs, meanwhile, took to social media to defend Crombie with some choice words for the backbencher.
'The Ontario Liberal leadership isn't a backup plan or safety net. Building for the future takes hard work and someone who is going to stick it out,' said MPP Stephen Blais (Orleans).
That's a reference to Erskine-Smith doing little to help the Grits after losing the leadership contest, including in the Feb. 27 snap election won by Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives with 43 per cent of the popular vote.
The MP insisted he 'was happy to work for a winning campaign in support of local MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon, an energetic force in community engagement' in February.
MPP Stephanie Smyth (St. Paul's), one of the five newly elected Liberals, praised Crombie for returning the party to official status in the legislature, taking 30 per cent of the vote and improving fundraising.
'Let's not go backwards,' said Smyth.
Still, the Liberals' inefficient vote led to just 14 seats in the 124-member legislature compared to 80 for the PCs. The NDP held 27 seats with just 18.5 per cent of the vote. Mike Schreiner's Greens won two ridings and Independent Bobbi Ann Brady was re-elected.
Crombie failed to win a seat, losing Mississauga East-Cooksville to Tory Silvia Gualtieri, a setback for a three-term Mississauga mayor. She has said she will contest a byelection when a viable riding opens up.
Rookie MPP Rob Cerjanec (Ajax) said he was 'tired of this crap' from Erskine-Smith and other insurgents.
'The last campaign had its issues and the seat result wasn't what we wanted but there were also some successes. I've had good conversations with Bonnie Crombie about what went wrong and what we need to do to win,' said Cerjanec.
'She agrees we need to do things differently. Another leadership race isn't going to help us build the party.'
Liberal House Leader John Fraser emphasized he 'will be supporting Bonnie at the AGM' and implored other Grits to do so.
'Our cause is a collective one, not one of personal ambition,' said Fraser in a veiled shot at Erskine-Smith.
MPP Andrea Hazell (Scarborough-Guildwood) noted she has 'always been passionate about women in leadership and I support Bonnie Crombie in bringing Ontario back on track.'
Newly elected MPP Jonathan Tsao (Don Valley North) praised the leader for putting 'our party first.'
'While others chase headlines, she's laser-focused on one thing: standing up for the people of Ontario and defeating Doug Ford and the PCs next election,' said Tsao.
MPP Lucille Collard (Ottawa-Vanier) said although she supported third-place finisher Yasir Naqvi in 2023, Crombie 'has shown skill in growing our party's appeal and presenting serious policy.'
'You may not agree with her on everything, and that's fine. The OLP has momentum and the last thing we need is another leadership race,' said Collard.
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Yahoo
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Trudeau radically overhauled the Senate — will Carney keep his reforms?
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"The place has become, unfortunately, an echo chamber," he said. Housakos said the old Senate was more honest, when members were more transparent about their political leanings. Many of Trudeau's Independent appointees are Liberal-minded and their voting record suggests they often align with the government, Housakos said. "Look at how often they've held the government to account," he said. "Look how often they've asked the difficult questions in the moments when the government needed … their feet held to the fire." Simons sees things differently. "It's really difficult for people who've been brought up in a partisan milieu, whether they're Conservative or Liberal or New Democrat, to understand that it is actually possible to be a political actor without a team flag," she said. "It's not my job to stand for a political party." Saskatchewan Sen. Pamela Wallin is a member of the Canadian Senators Group, which is made up of non-partisan senators including some who, like her, formerly sat as Conservatives. She said the current process has produced some senators who are political neophytes, unfamiliar with the Senate's traditional role. "I don't care if somebody belongs to a political party.… I think people need to be better educated about what they're signing up for," she said. "Our job is to be an arbiter of legislation and laws put forward by the House of Commons. It's not a place where we can all ride our individual hobby horses." That's a reference to the proliferation of Senate public bills — legislation introduced by senators themselves. These bills often have no hope of passing through both chambers, while still taking time and resources to sort through. There is data to support Wallin's contention that there are more of these bills than there were before the Trudeau reforms. During Stephen Harper's last term, there were 56 Senate public bills introduced and nine of them were passed into law, according to a CBC News review of parliamentary data. By comparison, Trudeau's final session saw 92 bills introduced over a shorter time period. Only 12 of them passed — a worse success rate. In the first few weeks of this new Parliament, more than 32 such bills have already been introduced, some of them a revival of those that died on the order paper. Wallin said those bills often reflect senators' "personal interests or the interests that they've shared over a lifetime." She wants the Senate to take a "back to basics" approach. "Our job is sober second thought," she said. Wallin is also calling for better regional representation in the Senate, which may be a tricky proposition given the constitutional realities. A change in seat allocation would require cracking open that foundational document, a politically unpalatable idea. Still, Alberta separatists are agitating for change, calling the current breakdown grossly unfair. Housakos said depriving some parts of the country of meaningful representation needs to be addressed. In B.C., for example, the province's nearly six million people are represented by just six senators. P.E.I., by comparison, has four senators for about 180,000 people — an allocation formula that dates back to Confederation. "Western Canada has a legitimate beef. They are not fairly represented in the upper chamber," Housakos said. "It's probably the biggest problem that needs to be addressed." But the government isn't interested in that sort of change, MacKinnon said. "I see no space on the public agenda for constitutional discussions," he said.
