Members of the Ontario Liberal Party talk about their second consecutive disastrous election result in epic terms and warn that the party’s survival depends on what it does next.
The Liberals won just eight seats in the June 2 election, and drew even fewer votes across the province than in 2018. This means the party followed the worst election result in its history with its second worst result. .
The Liberals now face four more years without official party status, meaning they will not receive funding for party staff at Queen’s Park. The party is also facing a leadership contest to find a replacement for Steven 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 thorough examination of what went wrong, along with a diligent effort to listen to voters, with the aim of finding out the future direction of the party before rushing. in a leadership career.
“It’s an extinction-level event or it’s a renaissance-level event, and I hope it’s the second,” said Jonathan Scott, a Liberal strategist who helped lead Michael Coteau’s candidacy for party leadership in 2020.
Scott believes the party did not really accept the message Ontario voters sent in 2018 about their dissatisfaction with the way the Liberals ruled during the final stretch of their 15 years in power.
TARGET | Steven De Duca announces his resignation as leader after the Ontario Liberals defeated:
Liberal leader Steven Del Duca says he will resign after the election defeat
After an election, the former minister says he will retire. He also failed to win his montage.
“This time, as the party searches for the soul that this electoral loss entails, we actually have to learn those lessons,” Scott said in an interview.
He said it was essential for the party to show “a level of humility and branch-to-branch reform” in order to recover from the ashes of the elections.
Liberal candidates who lost on June 2 are also among those calling for this same kind of soul-searching.
“I don’t think we can downplay what happened,” said Andrea Barrack, who lost to the NDP incumbent at University-Rosedale, a part of Toronto that the Liberals had previously considered a stronghold.
“We lost two very bad elections and I’m worried about not being relevant to the people of Ontario or not being seen as a party that can win,” Barrack said in an interview.
While he believes the party is in “a bit of a crisis”, he also believes this offers a great opportunity.
Andrea Barrack was the candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party in the University-Rosedale constituency in the 2022 provincial election. (Andreabarrack.ca)
“We have to really think about what we stand for and for whom we do it,” Barrack said. “How does this purpose fit into the new context in which we find ourselves? And do we have solutions that matter to people?”
Liberal candidate Jeff Lehman lost by just 609 votes to Ford government attorney general Doug Downey in the Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte constituency. Lehman says it is essential for the party to focus on the two core values of social progress and fiscal responsibility.
“Our challenge now is to restore Ontario’s faith in this centrism, in this fiscal responsibility, to be able to talk about the importance of the economy, as we talk about the importance of social progress,” Lehman told The TVO Agenda with Steve Paikin. , in an episode advertised as “Are the Ontario Liberals in Crisis?”
Both Lehman and Barrack say the Liberal Party has shifted too far to the left and left the political center in Doug Ford’s PC Party, which in this campaign was presented as an ideologically moderate and pro-worker option.
In conversations with various Liberals since the election defeat, a common theme arises: they admit that their party has been the victim of a kind of arrogance, an overly strong belief that they are always right, and instead of really listening to the people. , they seem much more eager to talk to them. It’s a phenomenon you might call “libsplaining.”
Prime Minister Doug Ford speaks with Stelco employees during an election campaign stop at the steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, in May. (Peter Power / The Canadian Press)
Liberal organizer Simone Racanelli says party activists need to do a solid autopsy since the election and think carefully about the party’s future identity.
“The next election could be a death knell for us. I personally think it will be,” Racanelli told CBC Radio Ontario Today’s open line program.
Racanelli helped run the Liberal campaign in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, an area of western Toronto that the party had identified as a key target, but failed to win by just 803 votes.
“One of the things I heard most at the door was people who either didn’t know who our leader was, or they didn’t like what they heard from him,” Racanelli said.
He said two key things the party needs to address are “how to improve our communications and how to connect with the average voter.”
There seems to be widespread agreement among liberals that a fast-paced leadership race would be a mistake.
A Liberal supporter is watching the results of election night after media outlets projected that Ontario PCs would win a majority government. (Chris Young / The Canadian Press)
“Long before looking at who the new leaders should be, the party needs to think about reforming itself,” Scott said. “We need a more inclusive party.”
He said it was important for the Liberals to take it slowly in order to get it right in time for the next election.
“Change or die,” Scott said. “You may not die in three terms, but yes. It’s not a Russian roulette game that I would like to play electorally.”
Barrack, who has worked as a senior executive in each of the public, private and non-profit sectors, also wants the party to take its time to choose a leader.
“When you decide you want to hire a leader, start with the job description,” Barrack said. “Start by really understanding what you want this person to do. We have time to do it right.”
With only four seats in Toronto, three in Ottawa and one in Kingston, the Liberals are left unrepresented in large areas of the province.
Barrack said he was surprised by the weakness of party organizations, which hampered the Liberals’ ability to figure out what matters to community voters.
“We need people to talk to their neighbors about the issues that concern them,” he said.