By Pepper Parr
April 17th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
One things happened on Friday that have more than just the potential to change the way Ontario is governed.
Navdeep Bains
(1) Navdeep Bains advised his employer that he was resigning. Bains was the Chief Corporate Affairs officer at Rogers Communications. What was an unconfirmed report that Bains was thinking about running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party was now very real.
(2) The plans Nate Erwin- Smith had to get himself elected as a member of the provincial legislature were now null and void. Erskine-Smith is a Member of the House of Commons who is running for the Scarborough West provincial with the stated intention of runnong for the party leadership when he is elected. That should have been if and when he is elected.
(3) Premier Doug Ford now knows he has a problem. An educated guess is that he will choose not to run and bow out after serving three terms as Premier of the province.
Navdeep Bains has decided to leave Rogers effective May 8.
Numerous Liberal Party insiders describe Bains as a well-regarded industry and science minister, saying he has been inundated with calls urging him to seek the Ontario Liberal crown.
At last weekend’s federal Liberal convention in Montreal, Bains was working the hospitality suites to garner support.
He has also been calling Ontario Grit MPs and MPPs at Queen’s Park to gauge the temperature.
Bains had briefly considered running in the 2023 contest won by Bonnie Crombie, who resigned four months ago, he decided the timing wasn’t right for his young family.
Bains would radically alter the leadership landscape because he has experience rebuilding a political party and going from opposition to government, and is known as an effective organizer and fundraiser.
He represented the old riding of Mississauga—Brampton South from 2004 to 2011 and, after losing his seat in the Liberals’ 2011 defeat to prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, he helped Trudeau win power in 2015, representing Mississauga—Malton and serving in cabinet until 2021.
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