A vote on who will take over leading the Ontario NDP until its members elect a replacement for Andrea Horwath will be held as early as June 28, according to an email obtained by QP Briefing.
Ontario NDP President Janelle Brady wrote to the party's provincial council members inviting them to meet in two weeks.
At that meeting, Brady notes, it's expected the party's executive will present its nominee for interim leader to council. The executive is meeting "this week," Brady said, which is when it's expected they'll recognize Peter Tabuns as their official nominee — which is NDP MPPs' preference. The NDP caucus voted for Tabuns as their choice to lead the party on an interim basis on Monday.
The executive's meeting this week where they're expected to formalize Tabuns as their recommendation is on Wednesday, party sources told QP Briefing.
"That recommendation will be presented to Council on Tuesday, June 28," Brady said in her email.
Brady didn't explicitly say in her email that the interim leader would be confirmed at the council meeting on June 28, but it would be a surprise for it not to happen then.
Aside from Andrea Horwath, Tabuns is the party's longest-serving MPP.
READ MORE: NDP caucus recommending Peter Tabuns as interim leader
Candidates for interim leader can still be nominated by members of the provincial council, according to the party’s constitution. Other MPPs who were in consideration by caucus to be their recommendation for interim leader were Bhutila Karpoche, Peggy Sattler and Jennifer French, sources told QP Briefing last week.
READ MORE: NDP MPPs to soon suggest one of four favourites be interim leader, say sources
Council delegates will be allowed to attend the June 28 meeting as long as their memberships are up to date, Brady's email said.
The provincial council is made up of the provincial executive, two representatives each from the NDP's provincial and federal caucuses, a collection of representatives from the party's ridings and regional groups, its youth group, women's group, and more.
Brady also said in her email that the party's executive will be leading a post-election review.
The NDP “did not get the outcome (they) had planned for,” Brady said, and “the work of the next months and years is to write a new chapter in the history of our party.”
She said the executive is “initiating a fulsome review process for debriefing purposes, through an independent review committee, over the coming weeks.”
Brady also thanked Horwath for her 13 years as party leader in the lengthy email, and stated that the “diverse, multi-generational, modern social democratic coalition” that makes up the NDP has created a “governing party in waiting” ready to take on Premier Doug Ford.
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