'Too nice' Liberal leadership contenders head into second debate

As the hopefuls head into their second debate Monday night against a headwind of other news — from the Trump trade war to the Blue Jays blowing a return to the World Series — party insiders say the promise game is more about getting attention than getting into detail. 

“They’re giving you blue-sky ideas … a ‘vision’ thing,” says veteran strategist Marcel Wieder, president of the public affairs firm Aurora Strategy Global.

“It’s policy lite.”

There are six weeks left for candidates to beef up their pitches to head a party that is second place to Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in the polls and a distant third in the legislature before ranked-ballot voting begins Nov. 9.

Narrowcasting their messages to several thousand party members, former federal industry minister Navdeep Bains, MPPs Stephanie Bowman and Lee Fairclough, former policy adviser Dylan Marando and financial technology engineer Eric Lombardi are battling for support daily at campaign events and on social media.

“Leadership races are about direction and priorities, not line-by-line budgets,” said the Bains campaign, which is pushing a universal nutrition program in schools because “a child who comes to school hungry can’t learn” and a fund aimed at creating jobs that pay well. 

Lombardi, the only candidate with a fully costed platform that has been on his website for months, expressed frustration Thursday with a general lack of media attention to the contest. 

“Nothing gets reported other than the race being ‘boring.’ Well, governance isn’t supposed to be entertainment,” the housing advocate wrote on X. He later deleted the post. 

“A whole generation did everything right and still can’t buy a home here,” Lombardi, who has never held public office, told the Star in a statement.

“The rules stop the homes families want from getting built, the code makes the ones that do get built expensive, and cities pay for growth by taxing whoever moves in. My plan goes after all three.”

If people find the Liberal leadership race boring, that’s because the candidates aren’t mixing it up enough, said Tim Hudak, who won Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leadership race in 2009.

“They’re all so nice. Too nice. I want some sparks,” the businessman and consultant told the Star, noting the 2022 Liberal contest won by Bonnie Crombie had much more interest and tension as she sparred with younger rival Nate Erskine-Smith, a former MP who dropped plans to run this time and is seeking a city council seat instead. 

“You want some electricity, some energy to drive votes,” Hudak added. “It’s a bit surprising that I’ve not seen, with Nav Bains being the presumed front-runner, the others trying to drive contrast.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the candidates, as Liberals, are largely on the same page and that promises are just part of the picture. 

“There’s no question policy will move some people, because they’ll see something they like,” he noted in an interview at his fourth-floor Queen’s Park office. 

“What people look for is who’s got the potential to grow,” added Fraser, mentioning the names of several premiers who didn’t necessarily seem like premier material during their leadership bids.

“Nobody ever thought David Peterson, at the beginning, was going to be premier. But each of those people, in different ways, had an ability to grow on the job.” (Peterson, who served as premier from 1985 to 1990, is now chair of Torstar, which owns the Star.) 

The ability to revitalize the party is key after years in the doldrums since Ford’s landslide win in 2018, said Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre), a former Ontario cabinet minister who was a leadership candidate in the party’s 2022 race won by Crombie. She quit in January. 

“Where the Ontario Liberal party finds itself now, the most important factor is organizational skills,” he added in a telephone interview from Parliament Hill, stressing that many riding associations are struggling and have few volunteers to mount a credible effort in election campaigns.

“That is a huge problem,” said Naqvi, who supports Bains, explaining that the last leader who had to revive riding associations was Dalton McGuinty more than two decades ago. He was elected leader in 1996 and didn’t become premier until 2003.

“That work really hasn’t happed since then.”

The development of a Liberal party platform for the next general election, expected in 2029 or 2030, won’t begin in earnest until a new leader is chosen, typically with a lot of consultation leading up to a policy conference. 

Bowman, the MPP for Don Valley West, has yet to release a full platform but is staking her effort on her economic credentials as an accountant and former senior Scotiabank executive. 

“The government has been too focused on electric vehicles that has been obviously a very vulnerable sector given the U.S. tariff situation,” she said in an interview. “We need to be broadening the investment in sectors beyond auto.”

To Naqvi’s point, she acknowledged “we have a lot of work to do to re-engage members.”

Fairclough, a former hospital CEO and World Cup rugby player who represents Etobicoke—Lakeshore in the legislature, has nine policy sections on her website that include reducing class sizes in schools, curtailing some “strong mayor” powers Ford gave municipalities and making public transit more affordable. 

Marando, who served as a policy adviser to McGuinty, Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau when they were in power, said he will release a full platform within days aimed at the “next generation.”

He would exempt workers under 35 from paying income tax on earnings below $50,000, bring “comprehensive” mental health care under OHIP and offer $10-a-day child care in “every corner of the province.”

“What I’m aiming to deliver is transformational change for young workers and young families.”