Mitzie Hunter is in it to win it.

The Scarborough-Guildwood MPP has joined the burgeoning contest to lead the Ontario Liberals back from the political wilderness in the next election.

“I have the background and experience to lead the Ontario Liberal Party and to take on Doug Ford and his Conservatives ... we can win in 2022,” Hunter told supporters Wednesday night in Scarborough.

“We need a Liberal leader who is willing to make bold moves and that will require strong leadership.”

Hunter was one of only seven Liberal MPPs to survive the June 2018 election that saw Ford’s Progressive Conservatives romp to victory, ending almost 15 years of Liberal rule.

“I have a bold goal: we need to knock on one million doors in Ontario by 2022,” said the former minister of education and post-secondary education.

“One million doors that will win us a mandate to reach 90 per cent graduation rate; one million doors that will win us a mandate to re-skill everybody that lost their job; one million doors that will win us a mandate to make our health care system work for everyone in need and support home caregivers,” she said.

“One million doors to return the Liberal Party of Ontario to government.”

Like Toronto Mayor John Tory and PC Finance Minister Rod Phillips, Hunter is a former chief executive officer of Civic Action, the influential non-partisan civic engagement group.

Pointing to her background as the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, she noted “my parents saw education and hard work as the keys to opportunity — a belief that I hold deeply and dearly.”

“They also taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things — and this has been my lifetime passion — to help people achieve their potential.”

It’s becoming a more crowded field to lead the Liberals, who will choose their next leader March 7.

The front-runner is former minister Steven Del Duca, but Don Valley East MPP Michael Coteau, another former minister, is also considered a strong candidate.

A longer shot is Alvin Tedjo, a former Grit staffer who was the party’s 2018 candidate in Oakville-North Burlington.

It costs $100,000 to enter the contest — a $75,000 registration fee and a $25,000 “conditionally refundable deposit” — and the deadline for entry is 5 p.m. on Nov. 25. Because that’s after the Oct. 21 federal election, it’s possible some defeated Liberal MPs could join the fray.

With Ford’s personal polling in a tailspin, there is more interest in who will lead the provincial Liberals than there has been in the months since former premier Kathleen Wynne’s defeat.

The party membership cut-off is 6 p.m. on Dec. 2 and the delegates who will cast ballots on March 7 will be selected at meetings across Ontario on the weekend of Feb. 8-9.

At Queen’s Park, the Liberals currently have six seats in the 124-member legislature after the retirement last month of Ottawa-Vanier MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers.

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There are 73 Tories, including Speaker Ted Arnott, who does not caucus with the government, 40 New Democrats, three ex-Tories sitting as Independents, and Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

Official party status in the house was raised to 12 MPPs from eight by the triumphant Tories last year.

Because the Liberals sit below the threshold, they receive no additional funds for research and do not get to ask questions every day in the daily question period.

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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