Doug Ford says Bonnie Crombie seeking Liberal leadership while being mayor is a ‘slap in the face to the residents’

Rankled by Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s bid to seek the Ontario Liberal leadership, Premier Doug Ford says “it’s a real slap in the face to the residents there.”

Stepping up his rhetoric against Crombie one day after he told the Star “bring it on,” Ford expressed concern her municipal duties would suffer.

“You can’t be … mayor and running for a leader,” the premier told reporters Wednesday in London.

“You can’t put your butt on both sides of the fence,” he said.

“Bonnie’s going to be running around the province not worrying about the people in Mississauga. In my opinion, it’s a real slap in the face to the residents there.”

Crombie, who spent much of her day in a council meeting at Mississauga city hall, turned the other cheek to his barb

“Let me be clear to Premier Ford: my record as mayor speaks for itself,” said the three-term chief magistrate re-elected last October with 78.5 per cent of the vote.

“My commitment is to responsibly grow Mississauga, create jobs, build housing, and manage our finances responsibly,” said Crombie.

“That is the same formula that I am prepared to discuss with Ontario Liberals,” she said of her exploratory committee examining a Liberal leadership bid.

Ford’s salvo came as Toronto Councillor Gary Crawford has been tapped as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the upcoming Scarborough-Guildwood byelection. Crawford will continue as Scarborough Southwest councillor while campaigning as a Tory candidate.

Under Ontario law, municipal politicians do not need to step down while running for another level of government.

That’s how Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was able to contest the federal Conservative party leadership last year and continue his civic duties.

Still, Ford expressed frustration that Crombie’s nascent campaign to seek the Liberal leadership comes as Queen’s Park is dissolving Peel Region and allowing Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon to become stand-alone municipalities as of Jan. 1, 2025.

“We’re making the largest change in the history of Mississauga and Peel — and this is all about Bonnie Crombie (and) her political … agenda, it’s not about the people of Mississauga,” the premier fumed at a London auto parts plant where he announced a $4.7-million program to train autoworkers to make electric vehicles.

“I think the best thing to do is she runs against me and we get to a new mayor of Mississauga.”

Ford wasn’t the only person taking aim at Crombie on Wednesday.

Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York), the first to register to run in the provincial Grit contest, questioned the self-described “centrist” mayor’s assertion the party moved too far left in recent years.

“If I lead the Ontario Liberals, we won’t govern from the centre-right … we won’t cede compassion to other parties,” said Erskine-Smith.

Liberal MPP Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) is the only other official candidate in the Liberal leadership contest, according to filings with Elections Ontario.

Others pondering bids are Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre), a former provincial cabinet minister and one-time Ontario Liberal Party president, and MPPs Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West) and Adil Shamji (Don Valley East).

The race will be decided Dec. 2 using a one-member, one-vote ranked-ballot system with the winner hoping to unseat Ford’s Tories in the 2026 election — or at least supplant the NDP, led by Marit Stiles, as the official opposition.

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