Could this GTA mayor be the leader Ontario’s Liberals need to defeat Doug Ford?

Ontario Liberals are abuzz over the prospect of popular Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie running for the party leadership, sources told the Star.

Crombie is expected to be a star attraction at the Liberals’ convention this weekend in Hamilton, which will be attended by some 1,500 delegates.

The mayor, who was re-elected last October with 77.1 per cent of the vote, is being encouraged to jump to provincial politics to challenge Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in 2026.

While she has been noncommittal about any such leadership bid, her planned presence at the Grits’ conference is seen as significant.

“A number of Liberals have expressed interest in her potentially being a candidate,” a senior party official, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, said Tuesday.

“She has a winning track record, she has a high profile across the province and she’s been an outspoken critic of the Ford government,” the insider said.

“The catch phrase is, ‘Bonnie in one,’” the source said, suggesting she could replicate Justin Trudeau’s success in reviving the moribund federal Liberals and taking them from third place to government in 2015.

Indeed, a high-ranking Progressive Conservative official, who also spoke confidentially to reveal private conversations, confirmed Crombie is the one potential Liberal candidate who concerns the premier.

“She’s the only one who gets inside his head,” said a PC insider, conceding Crombie is effective at pushing Ford’s buttons on issues like municipal development charges and Mississauga’s bid to break away from Peel Region.

Tension between the two politicians was palpable Monday at AstraZeneca’s Mississauga headquarters, where they were on hand with the prime minister for the pharmaceutical giant’s announcement of 500 new jobs there.

Ford, who has recruited many successful Tory candidates from municipal ranks, considers her a formidable opponent who shares his penchant for retail politicking, the insider said.

But Crombie, who has sparred with the premier over his civic reforms that she warns would hurt city coffers, also rattles him — so much so he lost his cool in December.

“We have a few mayors that … don’t want to play in the sandbox and one being Mayor Crombie, and I don’t know what her issue is,” Ford complained last Dec. 7 before telling her to “stop whining.”

After the premier’s tirade, the mayor issued a lengthy statement emphasizing she was “not whining,” but “stand(ing) up for our residents and taxpayers” against the Tories’ municipal changes.

Aside from her bona fides as a Ford critic, Crombie has no significant ties to the previous Liberal governments of Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, a second Grit insider noted.

“She would appeal to a wide swath of people who sat out the 2018 and 2022 election. She’s from the 905 and is well-known in many cultural communities,” the source said.

“It would be very hard for Ford to attack her … she has no baggage” from the Wynne or McGuinty eras, the insider added.

News that Crombie would be meeting with Liberal delegates at a convention hospitality suite at the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel on Friday jolted the nascent Grit leadership race.

While MPP Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough-Guildwood) announced Monday she wouldn’t be a candidate — she’s considering a run for Toronto mayor — there are at least four other leadership hopefuls.

MPPs Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) and Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West) are exploring bids, as are MPs Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre) and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York).

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said it was encouraging there’s so much interest in the party’s leadership — unlike the recent New Democratic contest that saw Marit Stiles acclaimed as leader — because it will boost membership, encourage new policy ideas and help fundraising.

“I feel confident that we’re going to have a really competitive race, and that we’re going to do it right,” Fraser told reporters Tuesday at Queen’s Park.

“For me, apart from my job holding the government to account here, that’s the next most important thing.”

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie