Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is exploring a bid to run for the Ontario Liberal leadership.
Crombie tells CityNews she has set up an exploratory committee for a potential leadership bid.
She was first elected in 2014 to mayoral seat in Mississauga after longtime mayor Hazel McCallion retired and has since been reelected twice in 2018 and 2022.
Crombie was also a federal Liberal Member of Parliament from 2008 to 2011.
A website for Crombie’s potential campaign, bonnieforleader.ca, went live earlier in the day before the landing page was taken down.
The Ontario Liberals will announce a new leader on Dec. 2 to replace Steven Del Duca, who resigned after the party did not win enough seats in last year’s election to have official party status at the legislature for the second campaign in a row.
The party have said they will soon announce the opening date for official candidate registration, but a deadline of Sept. 5 has been set and candidates must have an entry fee of $100,000 and a refundable $25,000 deposit.
Party members will cast their votes by ranked ballot on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, with the Liberals set to announce round-by-round results the following weekend.
Crombie recently got her wish for an independent Mississauga after the province introduced a bill that would separate Peel Region into three distinct municipalities.
The mayor said it will save her municipality $1 billion over 10 years and make it more efficient. She says the Region of Peel was created in the first place to “fund the growth and development of Brampton.”
The only other candidate to throw their hat in the ring so far is Toronto MP Nate Erskine-Smith.
Federal MP and former provincial cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi, along with Liberal MPPs Ted Hsu and Adil Shamji, have said they are exploring bids for the provincial party leadership.
With files from The Canadian Press
