Bonnie Crombie is ready for the onslaught.
As Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign aimed at framing her for voters, the new Liberal leader says bring it on.
"Just imagine, they're spending millions of dollars on attack ads and ignoring the priorities of Ontarians," Crombie told the Star on Wednesday at Queen's Park.
"This is a government driving in reverse," she said, pointing to Ford's many policy flip-flops, including his reversal of the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap that is now under investigation by the RCMP and cancellation of his promised dissolution of Peel Region.
Noting some of the Tory attacks are "based on false allegations," including the erroneous claim she has a house in the Hamptons — her ex-husband inherited a waterfront property in a less fashionable area of Long Island, New York — Crombie said she understands the rationale behind the ads.
"They're being used to distract people from the key issues that Ontarians are concerned about this holiday season," the Liberal leader said.
"Which is, of course, the ability to afford buying a gift for their children; single moms who are using food banks so that they can feed their children a holiday meal; seniors who are worried about access to health care and long-term care — real issues that people are concerned about."
The Tories began airing radio, TV and online spots — accusing Crombie of having a "high-flying, limousine-riding, Rolex-wearing lifestyle" — as soon as she won the Liberal leadership on Dec. 2 in a third-ballot victory over MP Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York).
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But, having already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on focus groups and public-opinion research this fall, the governing party will step up the advertising blitz in the New Year when it is cheaper to buy airtime.
The three-term Mississauga mayor, who will officially resign from her civic duties Jan. 12, said she has "a track record of management" that she is proud to run on in the 2026 provincial election.
"I have been a CEO of a large, $4-billion organization, and I've done so, I think, quite competently. My popularity has increased each election, not decreased," she said, contrasting herself to NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who heads the Official Opposition at Queen's Park.
"So I'm a much more experienced leader, somebody that can provide a very viable, competent … trustworthy alternative to Doug Ford. I'll be judged against my record."
The first Tory ads have also tried to link Crombie, a Liberal MP from 2008-11, to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon-pricing plan that Ford has long opposed.
However, she said the premier — who has worked in lockstep with Trudeau for the past few years on issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic and a national child-care program to public supports for electric-vehicle manufacturing and health-care funding — "absolutely is" closer to the prime minister than she is.
"I've worked with both levels of government, I've had to as the mayor, I've had to create relationships federally and provincially and worked successfully to secure funding (for municipalities) from both levels," said Crombie.
"But the prime minister did phone me to congratulate me (on winning the Liberal crown)," she said with a smile, in a veiled chiding of Ford, who eschewed political tradition and didn't issue a perfunctory statement of congratulations.
The new leader knows she has her work cut out for her — with only nine MPPs, the Liberals are three shy of official party status in the 124-member legislature.
That means they don't get regular questions to the government in the daily question period and have no standing on legislative committees.
Nor do they receive public funding for staff and research.
Still, Crombie said she is optimistic she can meet her goal of raising $1 million for party coffers by the end of this month.
The most recent Abacus Data poll for the Star suggested Ford's Tories remain popular — they were at 39 per cent to 27 per cent for Crombie's Liberals, 24 per cent for Stiles' New Democrats and six per cent for Mike Schreiner's Greens.
Using online panels based on the Lucid exchange platform, Abacus surveyed 1,000 Ontarians Dec. 7-12. Although opt-in polls cannot be assigned a margin of error, for comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have one of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Things may be trending slightly in Crombie's direction, though.
In the previous poll, the PCs were at 42 per cent, the NDP at 24 per cent, the Liberals at 23 per cent and the Greens at seven per cent.
Abacus also found in its most recent survey that 61 per cent felt Ford "cares more about helping his friends" while 28 per cent said he "cares more about improving the province" and 11 per cent didn't know.
Just 20 per cent said Crombie "cares more about helping her friends" and 37 per cent said she "care mores about improving the province" while 43 per cent didn't know.
Similarly, 56 per cent said Ford "ignores people like me" while 30 per cent said he "understands people like me" and 14 per cent had no opinion compared with 34 per cent saying Crombie "understands people like me" while 22 per cent said she "ignores people like me" and 44 per cent didn't know.
As well, 54 per cent said the premier was "elitist," while 30 per cent said he was "down to earth" and 17 per cent had no opinion.
That compared to 25 per cent who felt Crombie was "elitist" and 34 per cent said she was "down to earth" with 41 per cent unsure.
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