Bonnie Crombie loses seat, but vows to stay as Liberal leader

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Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie lost in her riding of Mississauga East-Cooksville Thursday night, but vowed to stay on as party leader.

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“You know I’m not going to slow down,” she told the crowd at her election-night party. “I want to tell you that I will stay on.”

With 56 of 64 polls reporting, Crombie had 43 per cent of the vote, losing to Tory candidate Silvia Gualtieri, who had 46.5 per cent of the vote.

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The results were no less discouraging for Liberals across the province.

With 92 per cent of polls reporting, the Liberals had nearly 30% of the provincial popular vote – about 13 percentage points behind Doug Ford’s Liberals. But it was not an efficient vote, and they were only elected or leading in 14 ridings.

The NDP, with only 18.6 per cent of the vote, had 25 seats.

In her speech, Crombie noted the Liberals beat the NDP by double digits, and have reclaimed official party status.

Gualtieri is the mother-in-law of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, himself the leader of the PCs between 2015 and 2018.

Just minutes before polls closed at 8 p.m., one observer at Crombie’s headquarters in Mississauga noted that Liberal insiders were initially optimistic that the party leader could flip the seat, which had been vacated by Kaleed Rasheed, a former Ford government minister, who left the PCs in 2023 to serve out his term as an independent before opting out of the 2025 election.

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Crombie accompanied her elderly mother to the voting booth earlier Thursday and used the occasion to underscore a major theme of her campaign: the state of healthcare in Ontario.

“I’m asking everyone in Ontario who wants to change the government and vote for better healthcare to get out there and cast a ballot for Ontario’s Liberals,” the Liberal leader wrote in her election day message. “My mom knows that elections shape the future of our province, and she wants to vote for a government that truly prioritizes healthcare for seniors like her.”

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Crombie had come under sustained fire from the PCs in recent weeks as the Conservatives highlighted several embarrassing social media posts made by Liberals candidates in ridings across the province.

The Progressive Conservatives basked in the disarray they sowed, creating a website on Monday called “Meet Team Bonnie,” highlighting some of the gaffes including several candidates who previously questioned Crombie’s party leadership.

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