Members of the Liberal Party of Ontario talk about their second consecutive disastrous election result in epic terms and warn that the very survival of the party depends on what it will do next.
The Liberals won just eight seats in the June 2nd election, garnering even fewer votes across the province than in 2018. That means the party followed the worst election result in its history with its second worst.
Liberals now face another four years without official party status, which means they will not receive funding for party staff at Queen’s Park. The party is also facing a race to find a replacement for Stephen Del Duca after he announced his resignation on election night.
The enormity of this second consecutive rejection has led some liberals to call for a thorough and careful study of what went wrong, along with a diligent effort to hear voters in order to understand the party’s future direction before rushing into a leadership race. .
“It’s either a disappearance-level event or a renaissance-level event, and I hope it’s the last one,” said Jonathan Scott, a liberal strategist who helped run Michael Coto’s candidacy for second place in 2020.
Scott believes that the party really did not accept the message that Ontario voters sent in 2018 about how dissatisfied they have become with the way liberals have ruled in the last 15 years of their rule.
WATCH Stephen De Duca announces his resignation as leader after the Ontario Liberals collapsed:
Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca says he will step down after losing the election
Only after one election does the former cabinet minister say he will step down. He also failed to win his ride.
“This time, while the party is looking for the soul that comes with such an election loss, we actually need to learn these lessons,” Scott said in an interview.
He said it was imperative for the party to show “a level of humility and reform from root to branch” in order to rebuild itself from the ashes of the election.
Liberal candidates who lost on June 2 are also among those calling for the same kind of search for the soul.
“I don’t think we can minimize what happened,” said Andrea Barak, who lost to the NDP holder at the University-Rosedale, part of Toronto that the Liberals previously considered a stronghold.
“We lost two elections very badly and I am worried that we will not become irrelevant to the people of Ontario or that they will not be seen as a party that can win,” Barak said in an interview.
Although she believes the party is in “a bit of a crisis”, she also believes it provides a huge opportunity.
Andrea Barak was the candidate of the Liberal Party of Ontario in the ride of the University-Rosedale in the provincial elections in 2022 (andreabarrack.ca)
“We really need to think about what we are and who we are doing this for,” Barak said. “How does this goal fit into the new context in which we find ourselves?” And do we have solutions that are important to people?
Liberal candidate Jeff Lehmann lost just 609 votes to Ford Attorney General Doug Downey in the Barry Springwater-Oro-Medonte ride. Lehman says it is essential for the party to focus on its two core values of social progress and fiscal responsibility.
“Our challenge now is to restore Ontario people’s faith in this centrism, in this fiscal responsibility, so that we can talk about the importance of the economy as we talk about the importance of social progress,” Lehmann told The Agenda on TVO. with Steve Peykin, in an episode titled “Are Ontario Liberals in Crisis?”
Both Lehman and Barrack say the Liberal Party has strayed too far to the left and abandoned the political center of Doug Ford’s PC Party, which the campaign portrays as an ideologically moderate and worker-friendly choice.
In conversations with a number of liberals after the election loss, a common theme emerges: they admit that their party has fallen victim to a kind of arrogance, too strong a belief that they are always right, and instead of really listening to people, they seem much more eager to speak with them. This is a phenomenon you can call “libsplaining”.
Prime Minister Doug Ford spoke with Stelco employees during the suspension of the election campaign at the steel plant in Hamilton, Ont., In May. (Peter Power / Canadian Press)
Simone Racanelli, a liberal organizer, says party activists need to do a solid autopsy of the election and carefully consider the party’s future identity.
“The next election could be ‘do or die for us. I personally think it will be, “Racanelli told CBC Radio Ontario Today.
Racanelli helped run the liberal campaign in Etobico-Lakeshore, a western part of Toronto, which the party identified as a key target, but failed to win with just 803 votes.
“One of the things I heard the most at the door was people who either didn’t know who our leader was or didn’t like what they heard about him,” Racanelli said.
She said two key things the party needs to consider are “how to improve our communication and how to connect with the average voter”.
There seems to be a broad consensus among liberals that a quick race for leadership would be a mistake.
A Liberal supporter is watching the results of election night after television networks predicted that computers in Ontario would win a majority government. (Chris Young / Canadian Press)
“Long before we consider who the new leaders should be, the party needs to consider reform itself,” Scott said. “We need a more inclusive party.”
He said it was important for the Liberals to adopt it slowly in order to fix it in time for the next election.
“Change or die,” Scott said. “You may not die in three terms, but you could. This is not a Russian roulette game that I would like to play in an election.
Barak, who has served as chief executive in each of the public, private and non-profit sectors, also wants the party to take the time to elect a leader.
“When you decide you want to hire a leader, you start with a job description,” Barak said. “Start by really understanding what you want this person to do. We have time to do this well.
With only four seats in Toronto, three in Ottawa and one in Kingston, the Liberals remain unrepresented in large parts of the province.
Barak said she was surprised by the weakness of organizations at the party level, which hinders the ability of liberals to understand what matters to voters in the community.
“We need people who talk to their neighbors about issues that interest them,” she said.
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