Public Interest or Private Profit? Liberal Insider Mike Crawley Plots to Take the Ontario Liberal Party Leadership

I've never been some well-connected, business-card-waving, lobbyist-registry-joining insider willing to sell access to people I know in the Ontario Liberal Party.  

Sure, I could've taken that route after 2003 when the Ontario Liberals first came to power.  I was a staffer back then - a big believer in the cause of defeating the Mike Harris PCs and fixing our healthcare and education systems.  While I hoped the McGuinty government would succeed in its progressive goals (and they certainly did on many files), I never dreamed of using my connections to stick it to ratepayers and get rich.  I was in politics for the right reasons.  

Liberal insider Mike Crawley

But longtime Liberal Party insider Mike Crawley clearly thought differently.  While many Liberals were working for the public good, Crawley was setting himself up to become the multi-millionaire he is today.  Now he wants to be the next Ontario Liberal Party leader, succeeding Bonnie Crombie.  I have some thoughts to share on this:

The "business record" Crawley now touts as his leadership credential is built on a foundation of insider access.  In November 2004, while Crawley was President of the Ontario wing of the federal Liberal Party, his company, AIM PowerGen, was awarded a $475 million, 20-year contract for the Erie Shores Wind Farm.

The optics were, frankly, gross.  While his company was bidding on that massive contract, Crawley was actively participating in Liberal Party policy meetings with industry figures and, according to Hansard records, encouraging attendance at a fundraiser for Energy Minister Dwight Duncan.  It was the beginning of a "pay-to-play" culture that would eventually haunt the Ontario Liberal Party.   

This wasn't just about one wind farm; it was about a systemic dismantling of oversight.  Crawley's companies - first AIM PowerGen and later Northland Power - benefited from the Global Adjustment (GA) system.  This mechanism guaranteed high, above-market rates for green energy companies for 20 years, regardless of market demand.  

• Skyrocketing Rates: Between 2006 and 2014 alone, the GA cost Ontario ratepayers $37 billion. 
• The Taxpayer Subsidy: In 2018, Doug Ford's PCs couldn't cancel these lucrative contracts without massive lawsuits, so they shifted the costs from hydro bills to the general tax base. 
• The Result: Today, in 2026, every single Ontario taxpayer is still on the hook for billions of dollars a year to subsidize the legacy contracts Crawley helped establish. 

How did this happen?  The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is supposed to ensure new projects are needed and prices are fair.  But for Crawley and his peers, the OEB was an obstacle. 

Liberal Energy Ministers Dwight Duncan and George Smitherman simply removed the OEB's teeth.  Between 2004 and 2011, they and other Liberal energy ministers issued almost 100 Ministerial Directives - marching orders that forced the system to bypass competitive bidding and cost-benefit analysis.

In 2004, Dwight Duncan didn't wait for a market need; he issued directives that "picked winners."  Mike Crawley was at the front of that line.  Because it was done via directive, there was no OEB hearing to ask if his 8 cents/kWh rate (60% above market value) was a good deal for the public.  It was a political decision, made for a political insider.  

When George Smitherman took the reins, he doubled down with the Green Energy Act - the ultimate "insider's charter."  He used these powers to sign infamous "Take-or-Pay" contracts.  Companies like Crawley's were paid guaranteed rates even if Ontario had a surplus of power and had to pay other jurisdictions to take it off our hands.   

Before the public realized our hydro bills were being treated like an insider's ATM, Crawley had already cashed out.  He sold AIM PowerGen in 2009 for an enterprise value of $241 million - a value no doubt inflated by those OEB-exempt contracts.  He then moved to Northland Power, where the cycle of lucrative procurement continued. 

This was a sad and soul-crushing moment in Ontario Liberal history and remains a stain on their record:  How Liberals converted the promise of green energy into a lucrative bonanza for party insiders.  

Now, in 2026, Mike Crawley is plotting to win the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.  He presents himself as a "successful businessman," but Crawley didn't succeed in a free market.  He succeeded in a rigged system where his friends in the party used Directives to bypass the watchdogs.  

He didn't build a business; he built a wealth-transfer machine.  

Ontario Liberals need to think carefully about who we are and whether or not we will finally turn the page on the corruption of the past and become the honest, decent, progressive, innovative leaders that Ontario needs.    

The province is growing tired of the new corruption they're seeing under current PC Premier Doug Ford, including the same insider tricks and deal-making behind closed doors they came to hate under the Liberals.  

But if the Liberals are led by their own insider who got rich from previous Liberal corruption, who are they to criticize Ford for any of this?  Any why would Ontarians turn to the Ontario Liberal Party to get a better government?    

 ****UPDATE March 10, 2026****

Thankfully, Crawley announced earlier this month that he was dropping his plans to seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberals.  While his "campaign" claimed preliminary support, he announced March 5th he would not run for leader for family reasons. 

But this report by Policorner noted that "several sources say Crawley’s team became aware that reporters were pursuing a potential story tied to court documents related to sediment released into two creeks near Cochrane by Northland Power, where he served as a vice-president at the time. It wasn’t clear to these sources what the scope of that reporting might be...

"Though they insist it wasn’t the only factor, the sources say the prospect of such a story was privately discussed by those close to Crawley as a factor in his decision to pull out...

“How much more weight does a vote in Cochrane carry compared to one in Mississauga?” one source asked..."

Ummm, wow! It figures that someone supporting Crawley would be so detached from reality that they would say something as stupid as that.  As if people in Mississauga or Toronto or anywhere in Ontario would love the idea of Crawley's previous company's involvement in damaging Ontario's waterways.    

"A second senior Grit blamed “our friends across the aisle” — the Progressive Conservatives — for the “negative campaign” they would unleash, adding Crawley “didn’t want to subject his family” to it...

"A third wasn’t convinced. “Say what you want, but he had the talent to weather whatever story might’ve come out..”

Based on what data?  What he actually did dropping out before even starting?  Talk about delusional.  

Please, Ontario Liberals, let's do a better job finding and supporting decent leadership candidates with actual political skills and experience with a background that can inspire and unite Ontarians.