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Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches—East York) said her efforts in the Feb. 27 snap election won by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives were not “anywhere close to good enough.”

“The leader was unprepared for an early campaign that was always a threat, invisible for too much of 2024, and didn’t do the hard work of rebuilding trust on the ground in every corner of the province,” Erskine-Smith said in an email blast Friday.

“At the same time, the eventual campaign lacked vision. We were just another not Doug Ford party, and failed to unite progressive Ontarians looking for serious leadership and change,” he wrote.

Erskine-Smith’s salvo came hours after Crombie backers sent out an email to Liberal members Friday warning against “giving Doug Ford exactly what he wants: a distracted, divided party that can’t deliver for Ontarians.”

They are urging members to rally behind her at the party’s annual general meeting Sept. 12-14 at ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s Sheraton Centre.

“This is not a leadership review or a campaign review — this is a vote on whether or not to call a new leadership election,” the Team Bonnie missive states.

“Here’s what a new leadership election would mean: our party would have to fund another leadership race instead of paying off campaign debt; momentum would stall — no focus on building up for policy conventions or riding capacity; legislative work at Queen’s Park would suffer as the party shifts inward again; a delay of opening nominations for at least 18 months, until a new leader is elected.”

Crombie’s supporters said such uncertainty would only benefit Ford’s three-term Tories.

“We have a choice: build up our party and unite behind a leader who’s already taken us this far or surrender our gains and tread water — while Doug Ford continues to plunder our province for his personal gain,” continued the missive.

“Let’s move forward, not backward. Be part of strengthening our party. Help us run up the score for Bonnie at the AGM this September!”

´¡Ìýgroup called New Leaf Liberals — co-founded by a supporter of Erskine-Smith‘s second-place campaign in 2023 — has a petition saying Crombie should resign if she falls short of 66 per cent support at the review.

Under the Liberal constitution, Crombie only needs to clear the threshold of 50 per cent to thwart a new leadership contest.

But Erskine-Smith said “51 per cent is obviously not enough.”

Her Grits took 30 per cent of the popular vote in February — behind the Ford Tories’ 43 per cent, but ahead of the 18.5 per cent of Marit Stiles’s New Democrats — and regained official status in the legislature for the first time since 2018.

But the former three-term Mississauga mayor lost Mississauga East-Cooksville to Tory Silvia Gualtieri and the Liberals inefficient vote led to just 14 seats in the 124-member legislature to 80 for the PCs and 27 for the NDP. Mike Schreiner’s Greens won two ridings and Independent Bobbi Ann Brady was re-elected.

In a video message to members earlier this week, Crombie said her post-election listening tour with nine regional meetings revealed “some common themes, constructive criticisms and some suggestions.”

Prior to Ford’s Tories winning power in 2018, the Liberals governed Ontario for almost 15 years under premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty.