Ontario Liberals will be best positioned to beat Doug Ford by electing a principled, pragmatic and Liberal leader. These values are paramount to both of us and will be critical to the Ontario Liberal Party’s future. That’s why we are announcing an agreement that will better position party members to work together in this leadership election.
We are asking our supporters to select each other as their number two choice when they fill out their ranked ballots. We also plan to coordinate our election weekend get-out-the-vote efforts to maximize our volunteer support.
During this leadership race, we have found we have a great deal of common ground. In particular, we have anchored our agreement in three core principles:
- Revitalizing the grassroots by strengthening riding associations, bolstering training resources, holding early and open nominations, and developing strong grassroots fundraising strategies.
- Restoring ethics in government by rebuilding trust in our party so we can form an ethical, principled government. Each of us would end bundling of donations, reduce donation limits, and strengthen lobbying rules to prevent improper influence-peddling.
- Building a party based on Liberal values by investing in public education, fixing our healthcare system without selling it off to the private sector, and tackling the climate crisis while growing our economy, ensuring affordability and creating opportunities for workers.
Our party faces an important decision between a principled, pragmatic Liberal Party and a party whose leadership is vulnerable to the same criticisms as the Ford Conservatives – their political baggage, priorities and donors.
For us, this contrast is fundamental and guides our decision to collaborate and rank each other as our second choice.
We hope you’ll join us. Ontario is counting on us to make the right choice.
