Just days ahead of the Ontario Liberal Party's annual general meeting, MPP Mitzie Hunter said she's not going to run for the party's leadership.
Hunter, who reps Scarborough—Guildwood at Queen's Park, said she's still interested in running to be Toronto's next mayor. The city's clerk has tentatively set June 26 as the date for a byelection to replace John Tory.
"I've been reflecting on the responsibilities of leading the Ontario Liberal Party, and I know that this is something that I won't be doing at this time," Hunter told reporters Monday morning. She wanted to make her stance clear before the party's annual general meeting in Hamilton this weekend, she added.
Hunter's also been reflecting on whether to run for mayor of Toronto, she said. She didn't give a definitive answer as to whether she'd do it but said she's seriously considering it.
"Many individuals have contacted me regarding running for the mayor, and I have been thinking about it. I've been reaching out, as well, to supporters," she said.
She'll be "updating everyone on (whether she'll run for mayor) very soon," she said.
Tory officially resigned as mayor on Feb. 17, one week after the Toronto Star reported that he had an extramarital affair with a former staffer. The race to replace Tory has already attracted a number of potential candidates, including several current and past city councillors.
With Hunter out of the Liberal leadership race, four of her caucus colleagues — Ted Hsu, Stephanie Bowman, Stephen Blais and Adil Shamji — remain as the party's MPPs who are still weighing whether to make the jump.
Hsu is the MPP with the most serious intentions at this point.
Hsu, the former MP for Kingston and the Islands, the federal equivalent of the provincial riding he was elected to on June 2, has been organizing his leadership campaign for months. Like others who are interested in running for Ontario Liberal leader, Hsu's held off on officially announcing his candidacy before the race's rules and timeline are set after the party's annual general meeting.
Liberal MPs Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Yasir Naqvi, former Ontario attorney general, are also deep in the process of preparing to run.
Hunter is the party's deputy leader and served as Kathleen Wynne's education minister from June 2016 to January 2018. She ran for leader in 2020, placing fourth.
During the last leadership campaign, Hunter championed a one-member-one-vote system for selecting future leaders. Her amendment to transform the party's way of electing a leader got 57 per cent of votes, just shy of the two-thirds majority needed to change the party's constitution.
Ahead of the upcoming annual general meeting in Hamilton, Hunter is again advocating that switching voting systems should be a top priority.
"I believe that we need to change how we select the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party by moving to one member one vote, a direct vote of the membership of a party," she said. "I'll be working hard on the floor" to get it across the line, she said.
Hunter’s Scarborough—Guildwood riding association worked closely with the central party to spearhead the current proposal to amend the Ontario Liberals’ constitution to change its leadership selection process to be closer to that of many other major parties in Canada.
On Monday, Hunter said she prefers a weighted one-member-one-vote system.
"I also believe that should be weighted, and that's something that we should debate on the floor because rural and northern members also need to have a strong voice in this party," she said.
A weighted system would likely see points allotted by riding so that urban ridings don't dominate the selection process. It's easier to sign up members in dense areas versus more sparse, rural ridings.
-With files from Charlie Pinkerton
