I can't stand "vote for me and I'll be the same as the current guy" politicians. Crombie's critique of Wynne gov't is literally the same as what Ford used to say in 2018 - it speaks to a lack of a backbone to criticize your own party more than your opponent as you're hinting at wanting to lead said party - and the theory of "Liberals need to be centre-right to win the 905" line is a little outdated, because I'm sure Crombie knows that Justin Trudeau had a clean sweep three clean sweeps of Mississauga while running as the most left-wing Liberal leader since his father. If Crombie wants to give voters two centre-right options, they will go for the authentic centre-right option.
Well to be fair she's not entirely the same as Ford. Ford's not a NIMBY.
Of all of the Ontario provincial elections in the last two or three decades, I can't remember a single time when Ontario Liberals won an election on a left-of-centre platform, with 2014 being an exception, but that was due to Tim Hudak being a little too frank about his plan to dismiss large numbers of public sector workers.
In general, I would say OLP does better when they run on a centre to centre-right platform, as in, promising not to raise taxes (McGuinty 2003), or even promising tax cuts (McGuinty 2011).
With that said, I agree with your criticism of 'I'll be the same as the current guy' politicians. By the time the next election comes, which will likely be in 2026, people will be getting tired of Ford. There is no point in running for office if you won't promise to do anything differently than the governing party.
