It’s D-Day for Ontario Liberals — as in Del Duca.

Members of the former governing party will choose a new leader Saturday to take them into a provincial election that is just 27 months away.

Delegate selection meetings suggest former cabinet minister Steve Del Duca is the overwhelming favourite to win the leadership at the Mississauga convention.

Only 2,084 delegates elected in meetings across Ontario last month and 640 “ex officio members” — including current and former Liberal MPPs, party brass, and 79 sitting Grit MPs from the province — are eligible to vote.

Del Duca, who lost his Vaughan riding in the Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative landslide in June 2018, has the support of 1,171 elected delegates as well as scores of ex officios.

“I’m not taking anything for granted. It’s the same approach I intend to bring towards making Doug Ford’s first term as premier his last,” he told the Star.

“For Ontario Liberals the next election will be the fight of our lives and I’m ready to hit the ground running so we can defeat this incompetent government and get moving on bold action to tackle climate change, restore confidence in public education, put patients at the centre of health care and provide real economic dignity to Ontario workers.”

His nearest competitor is MPP Michael Coteau (Don Valley East), another former cabinet minister, who has 371 elected delegates backing his candidacy.

In third place is Kate Graham, a former candidate in London North Centre who has emerged as a rising star in the party, with 273 elected delegates.

MPP Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough-Guildwood), also a former cabinet minister, has 130 delegates.

Alvin Tedjo, a former candidate in Oakville North-Burlington, has 72 delegates and Ottawa lawyer Brenda Hollingsworth has 25 delegates.

Ford, whose Tories ended almost 15 years of Liberal rule, said he has little interest in the Liberal contest.

“You know something, I don’t care who they pick,” the premier told reporters earlier this week in Toronto.

“I can ask the people in (two) years, is this province better off now than they were four years ago, with waste, mismanagement and scandal, day after day?” he said, referring to past Liberal transgressions.

“We’re seeing prosperity and growth, the likes of which this province has never seen before. We’re going to continue moving forward.”

On Friday in St. Catharines, Ford escalated the rhetoric saying the Liberals “destroyed this province.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Del Duca is “a quick and easy reminder of why people rejected the Liberals for their behaviour in the last 15 years.”

“He doesn’t believe that the rules are applicable to himself,” said Horwath, referring to past Grit controversies.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said Del Duca “really is the restoration of the old boys’ network in the Liberal party.”

With just eight seats in the 124-member legislature, the Liberals do not have party status at Queen’s Park. They also trail the Tories badly in fundraising.

Still, they take solace in the fact that Ford, who was booed while Mayor John Tory and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were cheered on the same Nathan Phillips Square stage during the Toronto Raptors’ victory celebrations last June, is unpopular.

The premier has a 26 per cent approval rating with 61 per cent disapproving for a net -35 per cent in the latest Campaign Research tracking poll with 13 per cent unsure.

Campaign Research polled 1,144 people on Wednesday and Thursday using Maru Blue’s online panel. It is an opt-in poll. For comparison purposes, a randomly selected sample of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 points, 19 times out of 20.

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Del Duca had 14 per cent approval and a 20 per cent disapproved for -6 per cent net approval, but 66 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know or weren’t sure, suggesting he is not well known yet.

Horwath had a 42 per cent approval and 30 per cent disapproval for a 12 per cent net approval with 28 per cent having no opinion.

The same poll found the Tories at 32 per cent with the Liberals and NDP tied at 28 per cent each and the Greens at 10 per cent.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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