LILLEY: Ontario’s Liberals don’t just need a new leader, they need an identity

If the Ontario Liberal Party didn’t already exist, would anyone invent it? The party that dominated provincial politics from 2003 through 2018 is now adrift from its roots, unsure of what it represents or what it should offer voters.

Unlike their highly successful federal cousins who have governed Canada for about 75 of the last 100 years, the Ontario Liberals have only governed the province for about 29 of those 100 years.

In last June’s election, the Liberals lost their leader when Steven Del Duca resigned after a dismal result. While the NDP selected their new leader, Marit Stiles, this week, the Liberals are still nowhere near ready to pick a leader.

Rules for the race aren’t expected to be set until the party’s annual general meeting in Hamilton next March. That meeting will set financial and other requirements for contenders and is likely to set a long leadership campaign.

That might make it difficult for several of the names that have been floated as candidates. So far, three sitting federal MPs – Michael Couteau, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Yasir Naqvi — have all spent time exploring the possibility of running.

If rules aren’t set until March and the party opts for a long race, that could see each of these potential candidates facing re-election at the federal level. Erskine-Smith stepped down as the chair of the Liberals’ Toronto caucus in September to devote more time to the provincial leadership while Naqvi – a former provincial attorney general – returned to Queen’s Park as he explores his bid.

Other names that are part of the discussion include Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Stephanie Bowman, who replaced Kathleen Wynne in the riding of Don Valley West.

Crombie, according to those close to her, is unlikely to leave a job she loves to enter the race but is enjoying the attention and cache it brings as she continues to battle Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Bowman, though a rookie MPP, would bring executive heft to the race with her background on Bay St. including her time as vice-president of Scotiabank.

There has been speculation that Mohamad Fakih, the owner of Paramount Foods, is considering a run but his recent legal battle over the future of his company is taking precedence. Finally, a column in the Toronto Star suggested the best leader for the Liberals is current Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

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That was an embarrassing suggestion for the party, one that says if you don’t like our principles, we’ll borrow someone else’s. Schreiner has rejected the idea, saying that while some Liberal supporters have spoken to him about the move, no party official approached him.

What the Liberals need to do in picking a new leader is to find someone who gives the party an identity again.

Dalton McGuinty was successful as Liberal leader and premier, winning three elections, because he ran as a fairly moderate, middle-of-the-road centrist. Wynne tried to take the party to the left of the NDP on many fronts and Del Duca ran a campaign that didn’t show how the party was different from the New Democrats.

There is room for a solidly centrist Liberal Party in Ontario. That would be a party that would be able to challenge Ford’s PCs for the large mushy middle that is Ontario politics.

If the party decides they would rather challenge the NDP to be the progressive champions and try to win from the left, they may find they stay in the wilderness. Why should voters back an imitation NDP when they can cast a ballot for the real thing?

This leadership race for the Liberals isn’t just about picking a new leader, it’s about the party deciding what it stands for and whether they have a future.

blilley@postmedia.com