It took time. It took patience, but Ontario has a new party leader for its liberals. The television networks missed some great programming opportunities in the finale. For all its weaknesses, the stupid balloting system played into the party’s hands. It proved that the liberal party is a progressive, centre-left party.
If you didn’t hear Bonnie Crombie’s acceptance speech, you missed a good one. It was light, it was homey, it was appreciative and it looked at the road ahead. What she told the liberals is that there is a lot of work to do and she was there to do the job.
The bad news of the finale in the race was that Crombie was only a few points ahead of the somewhat maverick Nate Erskine-Smith. It told her she needs to be freer in her leadership style. It told her that old style politics was not going to cut it. It told her that there was a need for new approaches to the old questions.
Of major concern was the fact that some 30,000 votes were cast out of a potential of over 100,000. That is bad news and the lady has a tough task ahead of her. First, she has to get the party to change its approach to fund-raising. She knows that there is nothing better than direct fund raising to those with the money. You cannot use the party worker lists as your political automated teller machine (ATM). That does not work.
Second, the party has to start training its supporters in door-knocking. They need to start as soon as possible in the new year. It is great if the members want to support the party with some money but they are really needed out there selling the party and its plans and what it offers our citizens. And they need to be trained in door-knocking in the coming election.
Third, the party has to work with its present and potential electable possibilities. They need to be assuring their voters in the coming election of their working for them.
They hardly need to be showing the voters that the Ford conservatives will keep making mistakes. They can do that without anyone’s help. The new leader and her party have to get the voters excited about the possibilities.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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