1. 1. No one won today. Not the Crombie loyalists. Not
the Nate-stans or New Leafers. Not the OLP rank and file. And not Ontarians
that want a credible alternative to Ford. Rebuilding will be on hold yet another
round of leadership drama. So maybe Doug Ford and Marit Stiles won.
2. 2. Crombie had no choice. The artificial bar set by
the New Leafers was silly. But realistically, she needed over 60%. Under that,
it would be challenging. Without a united caucus, it would be impossible.
Caucus wasn’t united. Credit to her for recognizing it fairly quickly. Her
position had become untenable. She’ll stay on until a new leader is picked.
John Fraser is sparred a third interim leadership.
3. 3. I heard a lot of talk this weekend about early
nominations. They are important. They’re not going to happen this cycle. Sure,
you could open things up during a leadership race. But how do you get serious
people to invest the time and the money in a run when they don’t know who their
leader is going to be?
4. 4. If this leadership isn’t going to be a wasted
year or more, we need the party executive to step up. We have a huge executive,
and they have not been as active as they could or should be for years. The workI’ve argued really needs to happen doesn’t need to wait for a leader. The
president and her team need to start now with rebuilding dormant riding associations,
building up local organizational and fundraising capacity, and recruiting and
training campaign workers and managers. And our two relatively new commissions –
Seniors, and Rural and Northern – have important work to do too. This work can’t wait. Rebuild
that big red machine so the new leader can hit the ground running. It’s not
easy, but they need to run a leadership and a rebuild at the same time.
5. 5. Lots of people will take credit for what happened
this weekend. In my last post, I posited Crombie had two opposition groups: the
Nate loyalists and the Liberals who believe governing is our manifest destiny.
I believe it’s the latter group that were the silent plurality of those that
voted Yes for a leadership review. They are frustrated with three straight
election losses. I share their frustration. But if they don’t step up to be
part of the rebuild, we’ll all be back here in the same place in four years.
6. 6. Let’s not overlook the good Crombie did. She increased
our vote. She raised a lot of money. She grew our caucus and got us back to official
party status. She rescued the party from near oblivion and left a strong
base for her successor to build on. We saw early fruits of that work with a
well-run convention this weekend.
7. 7. Let’s not overlook the bad of the Crombie era.
There’s lots. But I will highlight a few. Biggest of all, she had a weak core
team that were poor organizers, made bad decisions, and didn’t see an election
coming that everyone else in the province saw coming a mile away. There is no
excuse for how poorly prepared the party entered that election. And these were a lot of the same
people that have been in these roles since the McGuinty years. This party needs
a new generation of competent organizational leadership around the next leader.
8. 8. Can we get Brian Gallant to take up residency
here? His speech was great. It was a clear call for compassionate and
progressive Liberal values. He clearly has national ambitions. Carney needs to
bring him into the fold.
9. 9.The texts and WhatsApps are already burning up with
leadership speculation. Navdeep Bains. Jeff Lehman. Probably Nate. Probably a
surprise or two. If Bains runs, he will run away with it. If he doesn’t run, It’s
wide-open. But I know who I won’t be voting for.
10. 10. I can’t end without a food review. The OLP hands-down beats the federal party when it comes to feeding their convention attendees. Great spread for lunch on Saturday. Two salads, pasta, haddock, chicken, two deserts, soup and bread. At federal biennials, I don’t recall any free food outside the Laurier lounge.
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