Liberal Party of Ontario Leadership Race

We will not see a big, splashy provincial election for another 3 years. With that being said, it might seem like we are in the throes of a race because of the unpopularity of the current government. After the Ford government’s recent expense scandal, a July 24th Liason Strategies Poll had Doug Ford’s popularity at 24% and the Liberal Party without a leader ahead of the PC’s by 5 points.

Some of the Ford government’s decisions has meant the necessity of “direct action”, which can make it seem like we’re about to have an election, but we’re not. Direct action can be anything from calling your local MPP’s office or signing a petition, to protesting at Queens Park. Direct action works, but picking the right party in the first place, makes all of our lives so much easier.

There are five candidates vying to lead the Liberal Party of Ontario and the first debate of this race was held Monday night. The five candidates are: Lee Fairclough, Eric Lombardi, Navdeep Bains, Stephanie Bowman and Dylan Marando. Fairclough and Bowman are sitting MPP’s, Bains is a former MP, Marando has worked within the Liberal party and Lombardi is a finance and tech entrepreneur turned civic builder.

The only Ontarians who can vote for a party’s leader are official party members, which are simple to become. If you’re interested in picking the new leader, you can sign up to join the party on the Liberal Party of Ontario’s website. If you wish, you can also cancel your membership after the race and participate in another provincial party’s leadership contest when it happens.

The last provincial election was won by the current government with a record-low voter turnout. Let’s hope this leadership race inspires more interest than “record-low” in the next provincial general election.