Ontario Liberals face 'a ton of work' before taking on Doug Ford's PCs in next election

After back-to-back election disasters, Ontario Liberals are acutely aware of how crucial the next campaign will be to their party's political survival. 

"Three strikes and you're out, right?" quipped one Liberal organizer during a social event at the party's annual general meeting, held over the weekend in Hamilton.

The 1,500 Liberal members in attendance tried very hard not to project the image of a party licking its wounds from its two worst election results since Confederation. 

Much of their optimism is based on a belief that Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government will be vulnerable the next time Ontario goes to the polls, in 2026. 

"After eight years of Doug Ford, Ontarians will be looking for change in a way that they probably weren't this last election," said Dan Moulton, a party veteran who works for the public affairs firm Crestview Strategy. 

But Moulton says there are no easy answers to the task facing the Liberals over the next three years.

"There's an argument out there that Liberals need to reclaim the left from the NDP, and I'd say that more than anything, we have got to reclaim the centre-left from the Progressive Conservatives," Moulton said in an interview during the party's weekend gathering. 

"We're seeing a style of politics come from this government that's not terribly conservative, that occupies the space on the political spectrum that Liberals have long held," he said. "How do we compete with that? It's a really challenging question."

It's a question that will be debated over the coming months by whichever candidates decide to seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party. 

The leadership race hasn't officially begun, but the people who are most seriously exploring a run include: 

Some prominent Liberals are also courting Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie to seek the leadership. Crombie showed up at the weekend event and was glad-handing with party members in the hospitality suites. The former Liberal member of Parliament has neither ruled out nor confirmed whether she will run.

Liberals say the number of potential candidates considering running for leadership is itself a sign of hope for the party's future. They contrast that with the fact that the Ontario NDP acclaimed its new leader, Marit Stiles. 

Yet for all the Liberals' professed optimism about the future, there's the cold hard reality that just nine months ago, Ford and his PCs took more seats than any party has won in an Ontario election in 35 years. 

Naqvi says the Liberals need to rebuild the party at the local level around the province and listen closely to what Ontarians have to say about their lives right now.