Ontario Liberal leadership race heats up as candidates take aim at Bonnie Crombie

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie was a popular target at Thursday's Ontario Liberal leadership candidates' debate in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Nate Erskine-Smith, MP for Beaches-East York in Toronto; Ottawa Centre MP and former provincial cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi, and former Liberal MP and current provincial caucus member Ted Hsu all took turns taking aim at Crombie. 

Multiple public opinion polls have suggested Crombie is the current front-runner.

Naqvi, in particular, criticized Crombie's past statements about being open to Greenbelt land swaps as well as donations she has taken from developers. 

"You cannot elect a leader who one day says they're going to open the Greenbelt and the next day changes their mind," said Naqvi. "Or one who takes money from the same people who are donating to Doug Ford and says that somehow they're going to act any different."

Erskine-Smith criticized Crombie for past statements about governing "right of centre" and her track record on housing as mayor.

"Young people have left the city of Mississauga more than any other municipality because housing did not get built in the last decade," he said.

"Are we going to win with a leader who has a track record of failing to build homes?" 

In response, Crombie said she is proud of Mississauga's track record on housing.

"We have unlimited heights and densities in our downtown," said Crombie. "People want to live in Mississauga." 

Current provincial caucus member Adil Shamji did not directly criticize Crombie. Instead, he leaned heavily on his experiences as an emergency room physician and working at homeless shelters. Shamji said his priorities would be to make more family doctors available in northern Ontario and prevent ER closures. 

The Ontario Liberal Party said earlier this week that roughly 80,000 Ontarians registered to vote in the leadership contest.

Crombie's campaign took credit for "38,700+" new member sign ups on Facebook this Tuesday, while Naqvi's campaign claimed "north of 31,000" that same day. On Monday, Shamji's campaign said it had signed up 12,000 supporters to the party. That combined total exceeds the 80,000 total votes tallied by the party — even without counting Erskine-Smith and Hsu's registrations, which were not released. 

Peter Graefe, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University, said that Crombie's high self-reported enrolment numbers are an indicator that she could be tough to beat — but that she's far from having the leadership in the bag.