Doug Ford insiders say she’s a threat — and now Bonnie Crombie is poised to seek the Ontario Liberal leadership

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is launching an exploratory bid to lead the Ontario Liberals with an eye toward defeating Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in 2026.

“I’m the only person thinking about putting their name forward who has governing experience and who has gone toe-to-toe with the Ford government — whether it’s over the housing affordability crisis, health care and education or the climate change crisis,” said Crombie.

“I have been meeting and speaking with Liberals across the province and many of them have encouraged me to run,” the three-term mayor told the Star on the eve of making her leadership intentions official Tuesday.

A Crombie candidacy is viewed as an existential threat in Progressive Conservative circles.

“She is a formidable opponent for us,” conceded a senior Tory, who, like other Ford insiders interviewed, spoke confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations.

“We have six seats in Mississauga and five in Brampton that Bonnie Crombie could put in play,” the official said, mindful of how the Liberals dominated Greater Toronto Area ridings while in power from 2003 until 2018.

Another high-ranking PC insider agreed Crombie — who is also chair of Ontario’s Big City Mayors, which represents urban centres with a population of 100,000 or more — would upend the electoral map for the governing party.

“She’s a 905 mayor and by the next election, we’ll have been in for two terms — and, remember, governments have a tendency to defeat themselves,” the second Tory confided.

Crombie, one of the best-known municipal politicians in Canada, said “it’s very important that the Liberal party be brought back to the centre, which is where our roots are.”

Crombie — a former Liberal MP who was never a part of the governments of former premiers Kathleen Wynne or Dalton McGuinty — said the provincial party “moved too far to the left” in recent years.

“That alienated people who perhaps voted for the Ford government as a result,” the mayor said of the Grits’ chasing of traditional New Democratic Party voters.

“Being a centrist myself — and the way I managed the city — would bring those people back to the centre and give them an alternative,” she said, emphasizing the Grits need to broaden their appeal in both town and country.

“The Liberal party is a party of larger cities and municipalities … (but) we have to have policies that address rural issues as well as urban issues to bring them back into the fold.”

Having badly lost elections to Ford’s Tories in 2018 and again last year, the Grits, who lack enough seats in the legislature for official party status, are looking for a leader to revive them.

So far, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York) is the lone confirmed candidate in the Dec. 2 contest, which will be decided using a new one-member, one-vote ranked-ballot system similar to how the Tories elect their leaders.

Others exploring bids are Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre), a former provincial cabinet minister and Ontario Liberal Party president, and MPPs Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West), Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) and Adil Shamji (Don Valley East).

Candidates must pay a $100,000 entry fee plus a $25,000 refundable deposit.

Crombie said she would remain as mayor before making a final decision to formally enter the race later this year.

Fresh from perhaps her greatest political triumph — convincing Ford to free Mississauga from the shackles of Peel Region — she is riding high.

In fact, some Tories had hoped that significant victory might convince her to remain in municipal politics.

“My exact words to … Mayor Bonnie Crombie, I said, ‘You should be doing cartwheels’ — when I talked to her last night — ‘all the way down Highway 10,’” Ford told reporters Friday in St. Catharines.

Crombie, who won 77.1 per cent of the popular vote in last October’s election by campaigning for an independent Mississauga, was not shy about her willingness to work with a rival to achieve results.

“I convinced him that it was the right thing to do — that the taxpayers were further ahead with smaller, nimble, innovative cities that are more flexible, that could issue permits faster because … there would be less red tape,” she said.

“So I think that that resonated with him.”

But she emphasized the two leaders have many policy differences.

That includes Crombie’s concern with Ford’s various housing bills that could shortchange municipalities billions of dollars in lost development charges.

His penchant for overriding local planning decisions — and the controversial use of minister’s zoning orders in places like Port Credit — is also cause for alarm.

“I have a very direct style that perhaps is the crux of our … relationship. I don’t pull any punches,” Crombie said.

“Sometimes I think the premier sees that as criticism. I see it as very constructive input.”

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