ADAMS: Why my AGM ballot matters, even if Bonnie Crombie disagrees

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at Pickering City Centre helping the Durham Liberal team set up for an Ontario Liberal Party event. It was a pretty standard political gathering: the banners were going up, people were milling around, and I was doing what I always do at these things: socializing, getting a feel for the room, waiting to see how it all played out.

Then Bonnie Crombie showed up.

Now, here's the thing: I'd already formed an opinion of Crombie months before this event. My first impression of her came during the provincial leaders' debate.

The ONDP's Marit Stiles asked her a reasonable question about how the previous Liberal government, led by Kathleen Wynne, had left Ontario's healthcare system in dire conditions. Crombie scoffed, brushed it off, and flexed her donation numbers like she was comparing Instagram followers.

Needless to say, this was not a good first impression. It was cocky, out of touch, & unbecoming of someone who sat in all three levels of government. That stuck with me. So when she walked into the event in Pickering, I was curious. Would she be the same in person as she was on that stage?

The answer is complicated.

On the surface, Bonnie Crombie is warm, approachable, and charismatic. She's the kind of person who makes you lean in when she talks, someone who knows how to fill a room. I took my photo with her, made some quick small talk before her speech, and asked her two questions: her stance on Universal Basic Income and her position on electoral reform.

She didn't miss a beat. She told me she absolutely supports both. She even promised she'd bring up electoral reform in her speech that night. On UBI, she sounded eager to champion it—though, strangely, it's not actually part of the Ontario Liberal party policy anymore, despite being in the platform years ago.

On electoral reform, she was clear: she supports Ranked Choice Voting.

Here's the problem: Ranked Choice Voting without Proportional Representation doesn't fix the system and only serves as a minor buffer against vote splitting. We'd still be stuck with a First Past the Post setup that gives Doug Ford a majority government with only 38% of the vote. Crombie didn't address proportionality at all. To me, that's a huge red flag.

And then there was the moment that really stuck with me. When I told her I'd be voting at the upcoming AGM, she laughed and made a casual remark: she hoped I'd be “satisfied enough” with her that I wouldn't vote for a leadership race. I told her, half-joking, that I'd be voting yes so Nate Erskine-Smith could lead instead. Everyone laughed, including her entourage. But for just a split second, I saw something in Crombie's eyes: fear. That told me everything I needed to know.

Because later, when she gave her speech, almost half of it was her blowing smoke up our asses to convince us we should vote no on holding a leadership race. Professional, right? The rest was Crombie comparing herself to the ONDP, bragging about donations again, and promising she'd decentralize things "a little."

This is what worries me about her. Crombie wants control. She wants to lock down her position as leader without having to defend it in a real contest. That's not the sign of someone confident in their vision. That's the sign of someone afraid of losing it.

And look, I've never exactly been an ONDP fan. I've got autism, and their hardline support for Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy—and the way the ABA lobby has influenced them—made it impossible for me to even consider their movement. Andrea Horwath didn't inspire me, either. If I hadn't respected the Durham ONDP candidate beforehand, I probably would've spoiled my ballot or thrown it to some fringe protest party just to make a point.

But Ontario can't afford another leader who thinks bragging about donations is enough to win people over. We can't afford a leader who tells young Ontarians to trust them, sit down, and stop asking for real reform.

And Crombie's record doesn’t exactly scream “progressive renewal.” Her candidate vetting has been weak (looking at you, Viresh Bansal). Her speeches are more about taking shots at the ONDP than offering real solutions. And let's not ignore this fact: more PPC voters in Ontario went Liberal provincially than federal Liberals did. Think about that. When your party is attracting more of Maxime Bernier's base than actual Liberals, something's broken.

That's why her approach doesn’t work. It's all surface, no substance. It's cocky confidence instead of courageous policy. And it's exactly why I'm voting for a leadership race at the AGM.

Because this province doesn't just need someone who can smile, shake hands, and raise money. It needs someone with the courage to take on the broken electoral system. Someone who actually listens to grassroots members instead of trying to silence them. Someone who will lead as a progressive, not just market themselves as one.

That person isn't Bonnie Crombie.

It's Nate Erskine-Smith.

And if Ontario Liberals really want to build a future that's more than just another version of the past, then it's time for us to vote yes at the AGM and give Ontario the progressive leadership it deserves.

This piece was written by an individual contributor and reflects the editorial position of The Provincial Times and Left Lane Media Group. Read our Content Policy here.