Half of Ontario's elected Liberals are thinking they might be leadership material.
By Wednesday, MPPs Ted Hsu, Mitzie Hunter, Stephanie Bowman and Stephen Blais had all told The Trillium that going after the party's leadership could be in the cards for them.
That leaves the other half of the Liberals' eight-member caucus — interim leader John Fraser, Adil Shamji, Mary-Margaret McMahon, and Lucille Collard — as those who either don't have ambitions of taking over the party or haven't yet seriously considered it.
Hsu, a former MP for Kingston and the Islands, the federal equivalent of the provincial riding he was elected to on June 2, has been organizing his leadership campaign for months. Like others who are interested in running for Ontario Liberal leader, Hsu's held off on officially announcing his candidacy before the race's rules and timeline are set after the party's annual general meeting.
Ontario's Liberals are getting together in Hamilton from March 3 to 5 to discuss the party's future, elect a new governing body, and possibly pivot away from the delegate-decided leadership contest the party's held on to, in favour of a system in which every Liberal member votes. The party's newly elected executives are expected to shape the Liberal leadership race over the next few weeks.
Hunter, who is tied with Fraser as the party's longest-serving MPP and the only caucus member with cabinet experience, has also said for weeks that she's considering a second run at the party's top job. She placed fourth in the leadership contest that Steven Del Duca won in 2023.
Hunter has been Scarborough—Guildwood's MPP since 2013. Leading up to the party's annual general meeting, she's dedicated significant time to working with her riding association and the party on the proposal to change its leadership election to a weighted one-member-one-vote system, as she did ahead of the last leadership contest as well.
Hunter has also expressed interest in the sudden vacancy in the Toronto mayor's office. Last week, she said she's "seriously considering" jumping to municipal politics and running for mayor.
“I love this city. This is the city I grew up in. I love Toronto. Spent most of my working life here,” Hunter told reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday. "I have been talking to supporters. I've also been receiving a lot of encouragement about the mayoralty race and I just say to you, please stay tuned and I will make an update to you at the appropriate time.”
Bowman told The Trillium on Tuesday that she's "in the very early days of exploring leadership" and talking to "some courters and past candidates" as well as people who might financially support her campaign.
A former banking executive, Bowman was elected MPP for Don Valley West, the riding former leader and premier Kathleen Wynne represented for the Liberals before her.
In the days after the June 2 election, Blais expressed that he was interested in a "larger leadership role" within the party. A month and a half later, caucus unanimously chose Fraser to serve his second stint as interim leader.
On Wednesday, Blais told The Trillium that he would wait until the annual general meeting to decide whether he'll mount a leadership bid.
Shamji, who was an emergency room doctor before being elected as Don Valley East's MPP last spring, was asked by reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday if he was going to run for leader. He said that some people have encouraged him to, so he's thinking it over.
McMahon, a Toronto city councillor before she was elected last spring as the MPP for Beaches—East York, hasn’t indicated an interest in a run of her own. Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, the MP for the federal riding that overlaps McMahon's, has over the last few months been organizing a campaign to run for leader of the provincial party. McMahon said on Wednesday that she's focused on representing Beaches—East York and that she and Erskine-Smith work well together.
The Trillium was unable to reach Collard on Wednesday but has gathered from Liberal sources that she doesn't plan on running. Collard was the lone Liberal MPP that was among the signatories of a letter by some 40 prominent Liberals who wanted Green Leader Mike Schreiner to abandon his party to run for Liberal leader. On Tuesday, Schreiner shut down buzz that he'd grant their wishes, announcing that he's staying on as Green leader.
Yasir Naqvi, a former Liberal MPP and cabinet minister who is now the MP for Ottawa Centre, which he had repped provincially, is another potential Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidate. He's been putting together his campaign team over the last few months.
—With files from Aidan Chamandy.
Clarification: At 6:22 p.m., edits were made to better reflect Mary-Margaret McMahon's position toward the party's leadership campaign, as she explained it in a call after this story was first published.
