Toronto Star Op-Ed: Here’s someone who might lead Liberals

As published in the Toronto Star on May 16

By Martin Regg Cohn

In other news … look who’s running to be leader of Ontario’s Liberals.

Not still struggling to win a seat.

Lee Fairclough already has one.

Fairclough is the MPP for Etobicoke Lakeshore. She snatched the riding from Doug Ford’s Tories in the last election after years of slogging and slugging it out against her political adversaries in so-called “Ford Nation” territory.

Never mind the latest Scarborough Southwest soap opera pitting Liberals against Liberals in a disputed byelection nomination race. That riding was chosen by Nate Erskine-Smith as a stepping stone for his leadership ambitions, but he lost to entrepreneur Ahsanul Hafiz last weekend and is now challenging the result.

Let’s zoom out for a moment.

Amid the internecine squabbling, Fairclough is finding her feet and making tracks. While political junkies were obsessing over Scarborough last week, the Etobicoke MPP was criss-crossing the province, laying the groundwork for a grassroots campaign.

What has she learned from her travels — from Windsor to Timmins, with stops in Sarnia and Thunder Bay along the way?

“I want to say this because I think it’s important,” Fairclough tells me in her MPPs’ office at Queen’s Park.

“I was just up in Timmins. The people up in Timmins are not waking up every day saying, ‘What’s happening in Scarborough Southwest?’

“Right? They care about the issues: ‘Is my emergency department open today? Are my kids getting the schooling that they need? Do we have enough housing for the new industry that’s coming into town?’

“And I think as Liberals we’ve got to stay focused on these issues as we look ahead at this race.”

Fairclough formally entered the leadership campaign earlier this month to get a jump on her undeclared rivals: Erskine-Smith, still the MP for Beaches—East York; former federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains; and Ajax MPP Rob Cerjanec (former political aide Dylan Marando has also declared).

How will she stand out from the crowd?

First, she has a seat in a party that has precious few — the Liberals finished third in the seat count, winning a mere 14 in the last election. As an Etobicoke MPP, “I’m the furthest west” in the Liberal caucus, she notes ruefully.

Fairclough, 52, is a former hospital president who also worked as senior vice-president of clinical care for Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. But before ascending the health-care summit, she was a front-line medical radiation therapist who later got a master’s degree in health administration. After first seeing the cracks in the health-care system, and now witnessing the divisions in the Liberal party, she promises to rebuild both from the ground up.

But to lead the way she first wants to build a team.

Fairclough has been a captain for Canada’s national rugby team and competed for the varsity swimming team at U of T. How does competitive sports help her in the blood sport of politics?

“What I love most about rugby is there’s a position on the field for every kind of capability, body type — I had the tall woman’s position,” the 6-foot Fairclough tells me.

“We need a leader who knows how to be a team player and knows how to lead teams. Partisan politics is a team sport, and I think it’s really critical for us right now as Liberals.”

One might add that rugby scrums are also good training for journalistic scrums (lest you duck them on a rainy bad news day). What’s interesting about Fairclough is that she is chipper, not chippy, exuding authenticity and curiosity in a field of towering egos.

All that said, Fairclough is relatively new to politics, unlike the political veterans she is competing against. But she comes across as a grown-up with growth potential — a fighter who got up off the mat after losing her riding narrowly on her first try in 2022.

“I wasn’t that 15-year-old who dreamed of being premier one day,” she muses. “I was a 15-year-old who was going to work in health care until I was 80, but … people are looking for somebody that will be serious about government, that will bring back the focus to things like affordability in health care and education in a serious way.”

Fairclough is the party critic on homelessness, and has collaborated publicly across party lines with the Greens on that issue. She is also passionate about problem gambling, arguing that young men are being suckered by predatory advertising.

So far, Fairclough has won endorsements from former cabinet ministers and two fellow MPPs, and is touting more teammates to come. Rugby, like politics, is about carrying the ball but also knowing when to pass the ball.

In a previous column I suggested that Liberals had to decide on two related questions — what and who could defeat Doug Ford’s Tories, in terms of both policy and personality. Given the Scarborough sideshow that has consumed the cognoscenti of late, there’s a third question for Liberals:

Who can keep the team together and pass the ball in a tough game? Not whining but winning?