SCOOP: Grit candidates damning debrief revealed

Also: Staffing up at PO and Housing, props to Poilievre, Horwath's platform, Kaur crash

ABOVE THE FOLD

The Grits spent Saturday airing their campaign grievances. Here’s what went down:

First in Queen’s Park Observer — I got my hands on the 2022 Liberal candidates’ “reflections and recommendations” report, which pulls no punches when it comes to evaluating a brutal campaign for the third-place party.

“We were hampered — by a failure to truly define what we and our Leader stood for; by insufficient differentiation with the NDP; by a reliance on structures and techniques that were not in tune with what a third-place party should do in a modern campaign; and by an inability to respond effectively to what our main opponents were doing or offering,” it reads. “There’s no sugarcoating it — yet again, for the second time in a row, we haven’t hit the mark. For Ontarians to accept us as change-agents, we need to change.”

The report was written by the candidate debrief team, featuring failed election contenders: KARIM BARDEESY, ANDREA BARRACK, GREG DEMPSEY, LEE FAIRCLOUGH, KATIE GI…