2 Questions for the Ontario Liberal Party
I asked these questions after its 2022 defeat. They remain unanswered.
Sabrina Nanji writes today in the Queen’s Park Observer about a leaked agenda for the upcoming Ontario Liberal Party post-election postmortem. High on the order paper for the party’s still seatless leader Bonnie Crombie should be an exercise to answer the following existential question: Why?
After the 2022 Ontario provincial election, I opined the biggest challenge facing Ontario Liberals was the same issue. As a voter and a media commentator, I did not know why the Liberal Party existed. Sure, I knew its history. I had lived (begrudgingly) through its then very recent extended stretch as government under back-to-back premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne. I say begrudgingly because I did not much like the ideology that drove those two premiers. In fairness, ideology appeared to differ between the two with McGuinty focused on opportunism and the status quo, while Wynne leaned hard into her vision of social progressivism. In any case, I am clearly not the norm and Ontario voters kept re-electing them. Until they didn’t.
By the end of Wynne’s term, the Liberal Party had moved so far to the left it eclipsed the provincial NDP and prompted many to wonder what’s the point of the NDP if the Liberals are the same? Or, vice versa. After the 2022 election debacle that was both debut and denouement of then, briefly, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, the question became: Why does Ontario need the Liberal Party?
There was, then, no readily apparent answer. Nor did one emerge in the 2023 leadership contest that elected Bonnie Crombie. It’s 2025 now, and still no answer has emerged.
Bonnie Crombie will now have a few years (if she stays in the job) to answer that question. It may take some time, so she should start immediately. The upcoming postmortem would be a good place to, at least, frame the question.
Question 1: Why?
The Ontario Liberal Party website features just two pictures of Crombie and its newsletter hasn’t published (or at least uploaded) an issue since August 2024. Perhaps the communication team shares my struggle trying to define the Party’s identity and priorities.
One of the questions I often ask clients struggling with strategy issues is the same question I’d pose to the Ontario Liberal Party today: If the OLP ceased to exist at midnight tonight, who would notice? When? Why? What would they miss? What would they need to replace?
The answers to those questions help leaders better understand the fundamental value they provide their customers, their markets, their shareholders, their employees. They provide the same clarity for political leaders.
What is unique about the OLP that voters need? How does it differ from its competitors? Or would a Liberal government be the same as an NDP or PC government, but with different faces? If so, why choose Liberals?
Without a clear, compelling difference from its competitors, is there a reason for the Ontario Liberal Party to exist? Or, has it served its purpose? Has its time come to an end?
I’m sure there are many things the electorate wants that are not currently on offer from other parties in Ontario. What are they? That should form the foundation of a renewed Liberal identity and everything else – structure, membership, policies, platforms, messaging, etc. – should be built on that firm foundation.
Question 2: Chicken or egg?
All of which prompts the other question I asked in 2022: Which comes first, the leader or the party identity? Do you find a leader, in this case Bonnie Crombie if you keep her, and build a Liberal Party that suits her – or do you develop a strong identity for the party you want and that Ontario needs, then find the right leader to breathe it life?
We’ll soon see if the Ontario Liberal Party finds the answers to these questions – if it even asks them at all.
Snark aside – how would you (seriously) answer these questions?