Bonnie Crombie recently celebrated a milestone birthday — the kind that usually prompts a big party, or at the very least a special gathering with family and close friends — but instead she sat in an office doing debate prep.
Ahead of the big day, the Ontario Liberal Party leader sat down for an interview and the thought of not being with her loved ones seemed to weigh on her more heavily than the number itself.
But for Crombie, who started her political career at 47 and is now in the midst of a whirlwind election campaign at 65, it did stir up thoughts on ageism and the double standards that exist for women in so many walks of life.
During the 2023 Liberal leadership race, she hit back hard when fellow contestant Nate Erskine-Smith suggested Crombie wouldn’t stick around for multiple election cycles as leader, comments she said were …