Bonnie Crombie declared new Ontario Liberal leader after three rounds of voting

Bonnie Crombie has been declared the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.

The Mississauga mayor and former Liberal MP won after three rounds of ballots, defeating Nate Erskine-Smith, Yasir Naqvi and Ted Hsu.

Crombie has served three terms as the mayor of Mississauga, and has boasted that she seems to “rankle” Premier Doug Ford.

Polling suggests that of all the Liberal leadership candidates, the party will perform best against the Progressive Conservatives in the next election with Crombie at the helm.

The Liberals had boasted that the leadership saw the candidates sign up a record number of members, with more than 100,000 people eligible to vote for the new leader – up from 44,000 and 38,000 in the two previous leadership contests.

However, a fraction of those members cast ballots last weekend, with 22,827 people voting.