Yasir Naqvi testing the waters for an Ontario Liberal leadership race

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Less than two years after landing a job on Parliament Hill, Ottawa Center MP Yasir Naqvi is considering a return to provincial politics.

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Naqvi has traveled the province to gauge support for a bid to lead the Ontario Liberals, for which he served three terms at Queen’s Park, including three stints in former premier Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet.

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“I am seriously exploring the possibility of running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party,” Naqvi admitted in an interview Wednesday, which also marked his 49th birthday.

His motivation, he says, is to work to protect Ontario’s public services, which he says are under attack by Premier Doug Ford and the Conservatives.

“I’m really concerned about important public services in our province,” Naqvi said. “I strongly believe that Doug Ford is creating chaos in our public health and public education system just so he can justify privatization. We’re starting to see that happen in the health care system and I think our education system isn’t going to be far behind.

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Naqvi has traveled to Windsor, London, Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area to meet with local Liberals on what he calls a “listening tour”. He plans to do more tours in Niagara’s Golden Horseshoe and Northern Ontario.

For 15 years, Ontario was ruled by Liberal majorities until the party was crushed by Ford and the Conservatives in the 2018 election. The Liberals fell to just seven seats and lost official party status . They didn’t fare much better in 2022, winning eight seats under the leadership of Stephen Del Duca. Del Duca failed to even win his own seat and quickly resigned, leaving John Fraser, MPP for Ottawa South, as acting leader.

Naqvi said his meetings revealed a party in disarray.

“The party is in a very difficult place. The two electoral defeats were devastating. As I travel around the province and talk to local Liberals, it is clear that the party infrastructure is non-existent and there is very important and difficult work to be done to rebuild the party from the ground up. We are talking about rebuilding riding by riding, establishing local riding associations, attracting local volunteers and mobilizing them so that they can talk to their neighbors about the issues that matter to them. This work has not been done for some time.

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Originally from Pakistan, Naqvi immigrated to Canada with his family when he was a teenager. A lawyer by training, he won his first election in Ottawa Center in 2007.

He served in Wynne’s cabinet as Minister of Labor, Solicitor General and Attorney General. He was defeated by NDP MP Joel Harden in 2018, but returned to politics in 2021 as an MP in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s third federal election victory.

The race to lead the Ontario Liberals has not officially started, but Naqvi is already considered a frontrunner for the leadership. The party will hold a political convention in Hamilton in early March, when it will set out the rules and timing for choosing a leader. Naqvi expects the party to have a new leader before the end of the year.