Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is looking to raise $10 million before the next provincial election to try to resurrect the party from two disastrous electoral results.
After Premier Doug Ford began hinting that his government might move up the date of the next election from its current date of June 2026, Ontario's opposition parties have been busy preparing their teams for the next provincewide election.
Sources told Global News that Ford addressed speculation about a snap election at a recent Ontario Conservative caucus briefing and hinted at his concerns about the impact on a future Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre.
Polievre's Conservative Party has been leading in opinion polls and is widely expected to win the next federal election, currently scheduled for October 2025. If Polievre wins and presents a federal budget focused on spending cuts in the spring of 2026, Ford has expressed concerns about running a campaign on the back of a potentially unpopular spending plan and having to “bear the impact” of federal budget cuts, provincial sources said.
Yet early election speculation has forced Ford’s staunchest critics to accelerate election preparations.
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“We've rolled up our sleeves and are getting started,” said New Democratic Party Leader Marrit Stiles, who added that the party has formed an election planning committee to begin looking for candidates and kick-start the nomination process.
“Let's go. Let's overthrow this government, as quickly as possible,” Stiles said. “We have the power to defeat him.”
With the possibility of an early election looming, Crombie said her party has set its sights on raising more than $10 million before the writ of election is rescinded.
“I do have a goal,” Crombie said. “To be competitive, you need at least $10 million, and I believe we’ll be able to reach that goal by Election Day.”
The Liberal leader said the party is “aggressively fundraising” but did not disclose how much it has raised so far. In December, the Liberals said they were aiming to raise about $1 million a month.
Ontario political parties face a fiscal crisis at the end of 2024 when the province’s per-vote subsidies expire. The subsidies, designed to compensate for a 2017 change in fundraising rules that blocked corporate and union donations, pumped millions of dollars into each party’s coffers.
In 2023, the Conservatives receive $5.1 million in per-vote subsidies, the NDP gets $3.3 million, the Liberals get $2.8 million and the Greens get $702,000.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
