To say Bonnie Crombie left the Liberal Party of Ontario better off than she found them is definitely faint praise, considering she found the party as a minivan’s worth of seven MPPs crashed into a ditch with the air bags deployed and steam pouring out of the engine. But still: In February’s election she brought home five more seats than her woeful predecessor Steven Del Duca managed — enough to regain the party official status in the legislature — and 381,000 more votes across the province. Fundraising efforts rebounded impressively: The party claimed $2.9 million in contributions in 2024, Crombie’s first year on the job, up roughly 40 per cent from the year before and more than double what Del Duca managed, even adjusted for inflation, at the party’s nadir in 2019.