Five Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidates face off in first debate Monday

Five candidates vying to lead the Ontario Liberal Party will square off Monday, August 10, in their first official debate, held in a Brampton studio starting at 7 p.m. ET. The debate will be livestreamed, with Tina Yazdani, a Queen's Park reporter for The Trillium, moderating.

Interim Ontario Liberal Party leader John Fraser said the party hopes the debate will reach both party members and a wider Ontario audience. "We think this is a great way to introduce our candidates to our voters and our members," Fraser said. "What we're working really hard to do is provide an alternative to Ontarians, so that they'll be able to have confidence in a new government that they can elect."

The five candidates are: Navdeep Bains, a former science and industry minister in Justin Trudeau's federal government who left politics in 2021 and most recently served as an executive at Rogers; Stephanie Bowman, the MPP for Don Valley West since 2022, an accountant and former bank executive; Lee Fairclough, a first-time MPP representing Etobicoke-Lakeshore, former president of St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener, and a former player on Canada's National Women's Rugby Team; Eric Lombardi, founder of the advocacy group More Neighbours Toronto with a background in finance and technology; and Dylan Marando, a policy advisor to Liberal premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Fraser offered his candidates some straightforward advice: "Just be yourself. The most important thing I think is to be authentic. But it's hard sometimes because there's a lot of pressure and you want to perform well. You don't want to make any mistakes."

Online voting for a new leader will run from November 9 to 20, with results announced November 21. The party has been without a leader since Bonnie Crombie resigned in January.