Add Stephanie Bowman's name to the list of possible contestants to become the Ontario Liberal Party's next leader.
The former bank executive confirmed to The Trillium at Queen's Park on Tuesday that she's "exploring" a run. Bowman was elected the Liberal MPP for Don Valley West in the June 2 election, succeeding her party's former leader, Kathleen Wynne in the riding.
She joins a field of leadership prospects that will likely include at least three others. Liberal MPs Nate-Erskine Smith and Yasir Naqvi and MPP Ted Hsu have each been preparing their own campaigns over the last few months.
Mitzie Hunter, who has been Scarborough—Guildwood's Liberal MPP since 2013, has also expressed that she's tempted to run for leader again. She was fourth in the party's last leadership contest in 2020.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner shared on Tuesday that he won't be abandoning his party to run for the Liberal leadership, quashing a very-public attempt by some 40 prominent Liberals to get him to.
Bowman said 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.
"I do believe that the Liberal party still has a lot to offer," she added when asked what's motivating her, as a recently elected MPP in the third party at Queen's Park. "We got more votes than the NDP in the last election, they just weren't all in the right place to get us more seats."
"Canadians and Ontarians are moderate by nature and I think we need to make sure that we have a voice of a party that says, 'You know what, sometimes you need to think about one side of an argument versus another,'" she said, adding that means thinking about the "people impact and the money impact" of a decision.
Bowman studied business, graduating from Western University's Ivey Business School, and is a certified chartered accountant.
The Ontario Liberal Party's website says she "has more than 25 years of experience leading large, diverse teams in Canada and abroad," which includes time spent as a senior executive with Scotiabank and a partner at Ernst & Young. She was also on the Bank of Canada's board before she stepped down to run in last spring's provincial election.
Bowman joined the Ontario Liberals' slate of candidates in October 2021, more than half a year before the election, and was viewed as one of the party's standout recruits. To win Don Valley West, she defeated one of the Progressive Conservatives' star candidates, former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders. Bowman won by almost 2,000 votes, with 44 per cent of the overall share, to Saunders' 39 per cent.
Since the legislature resumed sitting in August, Bowman has been the Liberals' critic on finance, infrastructure and agriculture, food and rural affairs issues.
Bowman said Tuesday while speaking briefly to The Trillium about her exploration of a party-leadership bid that she feels she would "bring a lot to the table" as a candidate, including "around how we manage an economic recovery in this province."
"And I'm a person who likes to hear both sides of an argument before I make up my mind, and I think that's the strength of a good leader, and I think that's something I've demonstrated in my corporate career," she said.
Bowman didn't want to share the names of those she's engaged with about a leadership run because she hadn't asked their permission.
Similar to other prospective candidates, Bowman said she'll likely wait until the Liberal party irons out at least some of the details of its leadership election before she decides whether or not to run.
The Ontario Liberal Party's annual general meeting will be held in less than two weeks in Hamilton. There, party delegates will elect a new executive and vote on whether to change the party's constitution to shift the voting power on the leadership from delegates to all members.
The Ontario Liberals' new executive will begin shaping its leadership election following the party's upcoming three-day get together.
