By Pepper Parr
June 13th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The Ontario Liberals put on their fanciest shoes and deepest pockets earlier this week for leader Bonnie Crombie’s banner fundraising dinner, where tickets topped out at a sizzling $3,400 a plate. Sources inside the room tell QPO it was equal parts schmooze-fest and war-chest flex, with a smattering of quiet leadership tension. And yes, I got my hands on the menu.
It looked like a walk to a Coronation when Bonnie Crombie walked to a Liberal Party meeting in Hamilton – the momentum stalled – not being able to win a seat in the Legislature hasn’t helped.
The party’s comms team is touting a $5 million haul so far this year — a $500,000-chunk of it thanks to last night’s glitzy affair at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. That number would put the Grits ahead of their usual pace — the party claims to have raked in $5.4 million last year — and is a not-so-subtle message to anyone still questioning Crombie’s pull with the party’s donor class. Case in point, the official line: It’s “a clear sign of a party on the rise.”
But while the cash was flowing, the vibes were…complicated. Crombie is staring down a leadership review in the fall, and not everyone in the red tent is convinced it’s going to be a coronation. As I previously scooped, her inner circle is now holding regular Monday meetings focused squarely on making sure the review doesn’t turn into a full-blown referendum on her rookie-ish leadership.
One insider described the mood as “strategic” but not “panicked” — though others were tittering about a shadowy group of grassroots Grits that has emerged, setting the bar (and the trap) for the leadership review.
The energy now goes into keeping the job instead of building the party.
Crombie’s 66% problem: The anonymous group calling themselves the “New Leaf Liberals” says that unless Crombie gets 66 per cent of delegate support for the leadership, it’ll be time for her to pack it in.
In their words: They want “the resignation of the current party leader at the 2025 Annual General Meeting, should they not reach a two-thirds majority (66%) of the delegate vote.” Oh, and they want the party not to fill vacant delegate spots in the meantime — translation: no parachuting in last-minute Crombie loyalists. As of this morning, the petition had 75 signatures.
The party line? Everything’s fine. Some are brushing off the New Leaf Liberals as noise from the cheap seats. They’re quick to point out that Crombie still enjoys the public blessing of the entire caucus and party executive, and technically speaking, she only needs 51 per cent of delegate support to survive.
But insiders know all too well: 66 per cent is the quiet cutoff in Canadian politics. Fall short, and the knives tend to come out.
When the leader of a political party fails to win a seat, the tradition is for a sitting member in a very safe seat resigns and lets the party leader run for office. The Poilievre situation is an example. It is interesting to note that so far none of the 14 Liberals has stepped forward. Telling
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