Liberals tap candidate for Milton by-election and it’s not leader Bonnie Crombie

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Published March 25, 2024 at 6:41 pm

Galen Naidoo Harris

The Ontario Liberals have announced their candidate for the upcoming Milton by-election and, despite significant rumours, it’s not party leader Bonnie Crombie.

The Milton seat unexpectedly opened up on Jan. 25 when incumbent MPP Parm Gill abruptly announced his resignation to run for the town’s federal seat in the next election. The resignation gave Premier Doug Ford six months to call a by-election and fill the seat.

Shortly before Gill’s resignation Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie won the leadership of the Ontario Liberals in December and officially left the Mayor’s office for the final time in January. However, since she jumped right from the Mayor to Liberal Leader, Crombie does not have a seat in Queen’s Park.

Crombie never confirmed if she was going to run for the Milton seat, saying only that she’d run for the right seat at the right time. Regardless rumours swirled about her considering a run for Milton as recently as March 14. At that time, the party confirmed a decision was coming in the next few days.

During these Liberal deliberations, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives tapped longtime Milton town councillor Zeeshan Hamid to run for the town’s seat back on March 3.

On March 25, the Liberals announced they had chosen longtime party contributor Galen Naidoo Harris to run.

Naidoo Harris is the son of former Halton MPP Indira Naidoo-Harris, who served the Kathleen Wynne government as Education Minister. He has worked with the party for years at the federal level as the Community Affairs Manager for Milton MP Adam Van Koeverden.

Later Naidoo Harris moved to the office of Mississauga-Lakeshore MP Charles Sousa, who won his own seat in a 2022 by-election. He made the news back in 2020 after a frustrated reaction to Ford’s cancellation of the Milton GO Train expansion.

“Galen always puts his community first, and has built a career helping Milton families,” Crombie said in announcing Naidoo Harris’ candidacy, “I’m thrilled to have this experienced young leader on our team, and I look forward to welcoming Galen to Queen’s Park where he will build on his service to residents and represent the needs of his generation.”

The Ontario Liberals are in dire need of a win. The Progressive Conservatives led a crushing defeat against the party in 2018 after 15 years of Liberal control of Queen’s Park. The Liberals were knocked down from 58 seats to seven, losing official party status.

Under new leader Steven Del Duca, they faired no better in 2022 and held the same seat count. Del Duca lost his own Vaughan-Woodbridge seat and left provincial politics. Liberal support appeared to swell 10 points in the wake of Crombie’s leadership win nearly tying with the PCs. However, the most recent polls have the PCs back to a 14-point lead.

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