.jpg)
.jpeg)
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.
— 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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.
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.”
(According to a source familiar with the strategy, the 14-minute speech — where Crombie made public she was about to become a grandmother — was intended for the public, not delegates — who would’ve already made their mind.)
In private, more lit into the crew. “You could write a whole story about how this team has failed her,” one said.
“It was amateur hour,” another said. “The way they handled things was amateur.”
A third pointed out that many in and around Team Crombie were surprised when Allison and Levine were back in the picture. To them, giving the two a prominent role in this operation sent the wrong signal: Crombie was promising change, but the old guard was running the show.
Allison, who sat in the war room, had been ousted as campaign director and later took charge of Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign. Levine, for his part, had been replaced by Elizabeth Mendes, Crombie’s deputy chief, as her representative to the executive council. This weekend, he acted as chief scrutineer.
Even against Team Crombie’s high bar: The team organizing to oust the Liberal leader was feeling good. On the ground, organizers believed Crombie would land at around 56 per cent — shy of the 66 per cent target they’d set.
— An angry hall, a divided caucus: Though the result was expected by noon, a sense of suspicion crept through the hall when co-chairs Palwashah Ali and Trevor Stewart told the crowd the count was taking longer than expected.
Why? Those who’d normally be in the counting room — for example, executive director Simon Tunstall — were seen pacing the hall.
Privately, Crombie and her caucus had already been given the number. 57 per cent opposed a leadership contest, with 43 per cent in favour. It was survival, though hardly the majority she needed — around 66 per cent — to hang on.
Before facing Crombie, caucus met. Enter Tom Allison and Alexis Levine, who laid out their case to caucus and asked for their unanimous endorsement.
Some couldn’t understand why Allison and Levine were sent in. “The fact that Bonnie entrusted Tom and Alexis to handle negotiations with caucus is a case study in why she lost,” a source said, who argued it should have fallen to Darryn McArthur and Miles Hopper. “[They] were the ones with a good relationship with the caucus.”
In the end, MPPs were split.
During their pre-speech meeting, Crombie turned to them for advice — but she stopped short of asking for their support. Caucus went around the room, speaking one by one. Though some felt the result wasn’t enough to keep her on, most agreed to support whatever call she made. Andrea Hazell, for one, delivered an “emotional plea” to her colleagues. “It was basically, ‘don’t abandon Bonnie,’” one source said.
Sachin Aggarwal proposed caucus stand behind Crombie during her speech. She opted for family instead.
The plan: Crombie was to go on stage and say she needed time to think about her future. At the last minute, Aggarwal convinced the beleaguered leader to drop that line and pledge to stick it out.
Crombie and her team entered the hall. She — surrounded by family and a group of advisors, including Sandra Jensen, Madalyn Calzavara and Aggarwal — stood near the side of the hall. The rest sat up front.
What she said: On stage, the Liberal leader promised to stay put. “Let’s be clear, it’s not the number I wanted, but it is not the finish line for me,” she said. “I met with my caucus this morning, and I have the support I need to continue… We still believe that a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
As soon as the speech ended, some caucus members stormed out angrily, while the rest were hounded by reporters. “Not yet,” one replied, when asked if Crombie had sought their support. “We’re all digesting what’s going on right now,” a second said. Another voiced support for Crombie, but cautioned: “There’s going to be people who are going to ask questions that you’re asking today.”
Crombie slipped out a side door and back to her room. Reporters were told her planned scrum was cancelled.
Outside the room, outrage. One called it “grief and frustration.” Another said it was all “untenable.”
“This is undemocratic,” said an angry delegate who organized for her. “I voted ’yes’ and I wanted her to be the leader… This will destroy our party.”
“She used the party apparatus to get her here,” added a second. “If all she can get is 57 per cent, that’s a worse result.”
A third predicted she’d last “two weeks.” “She has to resign,” another texted immediately.
Crombie sat down with the executive council, described as “emotional” and “disappointed.” The Liberal leader said she’d carry on, opposed by just one voice: Noah Parker, a new regional vice-president. According to those present, she gave no indication she’d planned to quit.
— A “palace coup:” Caucus says there was no revolt. Behind the scenes, a threat from one member forced Crombie to “walk the plank.”
We spoke to several sources with knowledge of what led to her exit, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely.
The moment Crombie’s speech ended, Stephen Blais stormed out. Throughout it, he appeared angry; at one point, he was seen rolling his eyes.
In under an hour, Blais delivered a warning to Crombie: at least three MPPs — himself and Rob Cerjanec among them — were prepared to leave caucus should she stay on.
That was the breaking point. Crombie and her team got word through John Fraser. Though he wasn’t calling for her to quit, Fraser saw a looming rebellion as a danger for the party.
“It was Stephen who pushed Bonnie out,” a source said, saying he’d grown “very prickly” over the past month because he “didn’t like her.” They added: “A lot of people cared about Bonnie and didn’t want to see this happen… His behaviour was terrible and mean-spirited. Giving her the opportunity to exit gracefully was important, but he was not willing to give her that.”
Blais says he was not behind any move to force Crombie out, nor did he plan to run for leader.
Crombie and her team understood that if things fell apart, the narrative would be ugly. One source said most in the room — her family and inner circle — thought stepping down was, at that point, the right call. “It was hard. She needed time,” a second source said, who explained that Crombie was told that though she’d worked hard to unite the party, too many were hungry for rapid change.
“She understood, too, that for the party to continue the rebuild, they needed to have the most amount of time to do it [with a new leader],” they added.
Ultimately, it was Crombie’s call. By 4:49 p.m., she was done. For those not in her inner circle, it stung. They found out, like the rest, via X.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure [forming government] is not impeded by any one person. This is more important than ego. This is more important than ambition,” she wrote in a statement. “I have advised the party president of my decision to resign upon the selection of my successor.”
For now: One leader down. A leadership race to go.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Were you one of those who said they’d walk from caucus? What’s your take on what happened? I want to hear from you and I’ll keep you anonymous. We’re back tomorrow for Part II, featuring the spin, snark and reaction.