By Pepper Parr
September 20th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Bonnie Crombie: She was treated like royalty during the lead up to the selection of a new party leader.
Sometime yesterday Bonnie Crombie headed for London Ontario for a Provincial Liberal Party meeting.
Some wonder if she was looking forward to the event since Bonnie won the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
The party executive and the eight members who were elected haven’t managed to get much done. While the Liberals were second in the popular vote, it is the New Democrats who are the Opposition and it is those New Democrats who have kept nipping (biting is perhaps the better word) at Doug Ford’s heels.
Marit Stiles: Tough – a fighter. The public has yet to take to the idea that she could be a Premier.
Marit Stiles has done a great job as Leader of the Opposition but the NDP have yet to capture the public’s imagination and just don’t see them becoming a government. The Bob Rae experience has yet to fade completely.
Expect the Liberal party executive and the MPP’s to have a lot of questions to ask: like – where have you been lately?
We sent the pay cheque to you (reported to be $185,000 + expenses.) but we haven’t seen much of you meeting with Liberals across the province and preparing for the next provincial election.
It’s not as if Crombie needs the money – what some are wondering is – does she really want the job.
During the lead up to the campaign for a new provincial Liberal leader she was all over the place – at times covering two – three meetings with community groups in an evening.
You couldn’t stop her. Now – it’s as if the air has gone out of the tires and the wheels don’t go around all that well.
It will be an interesting meeting.
Given the repeated missteps of Doug Ford’s hapless government one would naturally expect the provincial Liberals to be riding high in the public opinion polls. They aren’t.
Crombie has been invisible since her election, and has a lower profile than a snake’s bellybutton. The fact that the NDP Leader looks, sounds and appears more and more like a viable alternative to many moderate voters does not reflect well on the two established parties. Dr. Adil Shamji, the provincial Liberal health critic, would make a much better leader. Maybe those Liberals gathering in London this weekend might want to start looking around for an alternative.
She is running at the wrong time to win.The dislike of Liberals and Trudeau make her job almost impossible.
Bonnie who? What has she been doing to earn her $185,000 per annum stipend, that until she wins a seat, is being paid for by the party?