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A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
— The showing: Going into the weekend, Crombie’s team was calm. All through Friday and Saturday, advisors were whispering to delegates and organizers that she’d land just over 70 per cent. By early Sunday, their internal data put the Liberal leader’s support at 72 per cent — roughly what Tom Allison and Alexis Levine told her she’d hit that morning.
From a quick glance around the convention hall, it added up. Most wore “no” pins as Crombie, a main draw, worked the crowd.
Not everyone was convinced. Some advisors, haunted by how Crombie’s leadership win played out, kept their guard up (“It’s a mistake to set the bar that high,” one said). Organizers, for their part, noticed the data didn’t square with what delegates were telling them.
“The data was bad,” one source said, pointing to about 220 ID’d delegates who voted against her. “Even the organizers and people on the ground — the list we had, the names on it — I kept asking ’are we sure they’re with us?’ People were telling us they were voting no, then voted yes,” a second added.
On Saturday night, a sign of trouble had cropped up. “We’re smoking them,” said a pro-”yes” organizer. The 132 alternates who were promoted — roughly one in every ten eligible to vote — broke 3-1 against Crombie.
Pile on: Some 400 delegates who’d paid stayed home. “How did they not show up?” a third source asked, with another pinning the blame on an inner circle they described as “dismissive” of organizers.
In one case, a senior organizer had suggested bringing delegates in by bus. The idea, however, was quashed. To some, it didn’t add up — as pointed out, that’s exactly what Team Navdeep Bains had done.
For some, all of it added up to incompetence. Liberal strategist Marcel Wieder is a close friend of Crombie and an ex-advisor on her leadership campaign. On the record, he tore into her team.
“The people running her leadership review campaign did her a tremendous disservice,” he said over the phone, calling it a “total failure.” “They failed in a number of ways — and, quite frankly, we wouldn’t be in this situation if (a) they had done their job during the election and ensured she won her seat, and (b) they had articulated a vision to delegates of where she, as Liberal leader, would take the party.”
To him, the timing of Crombie’s speech didn’t make sense. “They put her on the stage once the voting had ended, which made absolutely no sense,” Wieder added. “She would’ve had an opportunity to articulate a vision on Friday night that could’ve swung people in her favour.”
“They didn’t have a clue.”
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
— The showing: Going into the weekend, Crombie’s team was calm. All through Friday and Saturday, advisors were whispering to delegates and organizers that she’d land just over 70 per cent. By early Sunday, their internal data put the Liberal leader’s support at 72 per cent — roughly what Tom Allison and Alexis Levine told her she’d hit that morning.
From a quick glance around the convention hall, it added up. Most wore “no” pins as Crombie, a main draw, worked the crowd.
Not everyone was convinced. Some advisors, haunted by how Crombie’s leadership win played out, kept their guard up (“It’s a mistake to set the bar that high,” one said). Organizers, for their part, noticed the data didn’t square with what delegates were telling them.
“The data was bad,” one source said, pointing to about 220 ID’d delegates who voted against her. “Even the organizers and people on the ground — the list we had, the names on it — I kept asking ’are we sure they’re with us?’ People were telling us they were voting no, then voted yes,” a second added.
On Saturday night, a sign of trouble had cropped up. “We’re smoking them,” said a pro-”yes” organizer. The 132 alternates who were promoted — roughly one in every ten eligible to vote — broke 3-1 against Crombie.
Pile on: Some 400 delegates who’d paid stayed home. “How did they not show up?” a third source asked, with another pinning the blame on an inner circle they described as “dismissive” of organizers.
In one case, a senior organizer had suggested bringing delegates in by bus. The idea, however, was quashed. To some, it didn’t add up — as pointed out, that’s exactly what Team Navdeep Bains had done.
For some, all of it added up to incompetence. Liberal strategist Marcel Wieder is a close friend of Crombie and an ex-advisor on her leadership campaign. On the record, he tore into her team.
“The people running her leadership review campaign did her a tremendous disservice,” he said over the phone, calling it a “total failure.” “They failed in a number of ways — and, quite frankly, we wouldn’t be in this situation if (a) they had done their job during the election and ensured she won her seat, and (b) they had articulated a vision to delegates of where she, as Liberal leader, would take the party.”
To him, the timing of Crombie’s speech didn’t make sense. “They put her on the stage once the voting had ended, which made absolutely no sense,” Wieder added. “She would’ve had an opportunity to articulate a vision on Friday night that could’ve swung people in her favour.”
“They didn’t have a clue.”
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.
A bruising review, furious hall and “palace coup” later, Bonnie Crombie is out as Liberal leader.
Would-be successors are already on the prowl, while organizers, bracing for another leadership contest, privately say they’re tired. More on that tomorrow. For now, here’s how Crombie’s decision to dig in, then bow out, played out.