Ontario Liberals put their rebuild to the test after devastating 2018 election defeat

Four years ago the Ontario Liberals held a majority government and today they are not-so-affectionately dubbed "the minivan party," holding so few seats that they could carpool to a caucus meeting.

They have spent the time since their electoral drubbing in 2018 trying to rebuild, though without the benefit of much of their powerhouse machinery of old. Polls suggest they may not be entirely out of the running, but going from seven seats to government is a tall order.

Leader Steven Del Duca was elected by members days before the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 and the Liberals say he has spent the past two years listening to Ontarians, since they identify a failure to do that as a key reason for their 2018 loss.

Del Duca not holding a seat in the legislature has also allowed him to put a lot of energy into candidate recruitment.

"We started to think about, because we were obviously coming in ... from a very behind position, what can we do that can put us in a better position? And we focused in on team," campaign director Christine McMillan said in an interview.

The candidates themselves had a large hand in platform development, partly because the party was operating on a skeleton staff, but also to take advantage of their experience, McMillan said. Their roster includes a personal support worker, an ER doctor, a hospital CEO, and a well-known mayor.

Rob Gilmour, a strategist and former Progressive Conservative staffer, said the Liberals have put together an impressive team. He noted by way of disclosure that McMillan is a partner at Crestview Strategy, the firm at which he is a vice president — "I think she's wonderful. Am I going to vote for her? No, absolutely not."

"I've been impressed with the Liberal party and the efforts they've put forward to recruit really interesting, really strong, really diverse candidates from across all parts of Ontario," Gilmour said.

"It is clear to me that they are serious about rebuilding their party and rebuilding their brand. But it's also clear to me that they need to be serious about rebuilding their party and rebuilding their brand, because there's a reason they only won seven seats in 2018."

Skyrocketing hydro prices became a flashpoint of anger against the 15-year-old Liberal government, with then-premier Kathleen Wynne admitting she didn't pay close enough attention to the impacts their attempts to make the electricity system greener had on people's wallets.

They also angered progressive voters with the partial sale of Hydro One and angered the business community by moving quickly on increasing the minimum wage.

As the Liberals look to overcome any lingering anger from back then, they see their fresh slate of candidates as a key to success. But how does a party starting out so far behind define success?

Anna Esselment, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo, said she doesn't believe the Liberals are banking on forming government this time.

"I imagine they are looking two elections out," she said. "They'll have goals for this spring that will build to their goals for 2026. So what I would imagine, in the state that they're in now, is that their first goal would be to achieve official party status."