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Bonnie Crombie named new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party

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Bonnie Crombie has officially been declared the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party after a third round of balloting.

The win comes as she led the first and second round of balloting, but failed to cross the 50 per cent threshold needed to cement the win.

The Mississauga mayor and former Liberal MP held the position as the perceived front-runner against opponents Nate Erskine-Smith, Yasir Naqvi and Ted Hsu.

The new leader held three terms as the mayor of Mississauga and has spoken of the way she can seemingly “rankle” or annoy current Premier Doug Ford.

Polling had suggested that of all the candidates that were up for leadership, having Crombie at the lead would allow the party to hold the greatest chance against the Progressive Conservatives in the next election set for 2026.

The Liberals had boasted that the leadership saw candidates sign up with a record number of members, with upwards of 100,000 people eligible to vote for the new leader.

This is up from 44,000 and 38,000 in the previous leadership races.

Even still, only a fraction of those members who signed up casted a ballot last weekend, with only 22,827 having voted.

This report was created with files from The Canadian Press