Ontario Liberals start soul-searching after 2nd devastating election loss

Members of the Ontario Liberal Party are talking about their second-straight disastrous election result in epic terms, and warning that the party's very survival hangs in the balance of what it does next. 

The Liberals won just eight seats in the June 2 election, attracting even fewer votes across the province than they did in 2018. It means the party followed up the worst election result in its history with its second-worst result.

The Liberals now face another four years without official party status, which means they won't get funding for party staff at Queen's Park. The party also faces a leadership contest to find a replacement for Steven Del Duca after he announced his resignation on election night. 

The enormity of this second consecutive rejection has some Liberals calling for a deep and careful examination of what went wrong, along with a diligent effort to hear from voters, with the aim of figuring out the party's future direction before rushing into a leadership race. 

"It's either an extinction-level event or it's a renaissance-level event, and I hope it's the latter," said Jonathan Scott, a Liberal strategist who helped run Michael Coteau's runner-up party leadership bid in 2020. 

Scott believes the party didn't really take in the message that Ontario voters sent in 2018 about how dissatisfied they'd become with the way the Liberals governed during the final stretch of their 15 years in power. 

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"This time around, as the party does the soul searching that comes with such an election loss, we actually have to learn those lessons," said Scott in an interview. 

He said it's imperative that the party show "a level of humility and root-to-branch reform" to build itself back up from the ashes of the election.

Liberal candidates who lost on June 2 are also among those calling for this same kind of soul searching.

"I don't think we can minimize what happened," said Andrea Barrack, who lost to the NDP incumbent in University-Rosedale, a part of Toronto that the Liberals has previously considered a stronghold.

"We have lost two elections very badly and I do worry about becoming irrelevant to the people of Ontario or not being seen as a party that can win," Barrack said in an interview. 

While she believes the party is in "a bit of a crisis," she also thinks that provides a huge opportunity. 

"We do need to really think about what is it that we stand for, and who are we doing this for," said Barrack. "How does that purpose fit the new context that we're in? And do we have solutions that matter to people?"