Doug Ford says his ‘absolutely swamped’ MPPs won’t have time to campaign for Pierre Poilievre
Premier Doug Ford is reminding Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers and MPPs they will be too “swamped” with their day jobs to help Pierre Poilievre in the federal election campaign.
Premier Doug Ford is reminding Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers and MPPs they will be too “swamped” with their day jobs to help Pierre Poilievre in the federal election campaign.
Asked at the first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa on Friday if he would “let your MPPs campaign with Mr. Poilievre,” Ford did not mince words.
“I want to make sure our MPPs are fulfilling our mandate. We are going to be absolutely swamped,” said the premier, whose Tories were re-elected Feb. 27.
“Let’s focus on Ontario. That’s our main objective,” he said when pressed about any role his team would have in the federal election that is expected to begin Sunday.
“I’m not going to help anyone. That’s not my job. My job is to keep Ontario moving forward.”
His comments came after he and Poilievre disputed an account of their call earlier this week when the Conservative leader phoned to ask the premier’s “advice” on the looming election.
“The report is not accurate,” said the federal leader, who did not elaborate and ducked a question about why it took him 18 days to congratulate Ford on his landslide re-election.
“I did speak to the premier, as I do with all premiers, whenever they want to talk, and we talk about bringing home jobs to Canada, supporting the Ring of Fire, cutting taxes, unleashing our production and reversing the lost Liberal decade of the last nine years,” he said at a separate event in Ottawa.
The premier confirmed what the Star reported about him telling the Tory leader he would be “staying out” of the looming campaign.
“I just don’t believe in interfering with the federal election,” he said. “That’s going to be up to the people to decide. I’ll work with anyone. I don’t care about political stripes, I just don’t.”
Those privy to the chat said it was at times stilted and awkward because the two have little personal rapport.
Ford is working closely with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals on tackling U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It required the diplomatic skills of several veteran Tory operatives with strong ties to both the federal and provincial parties to arrange the phone call.
One acknowledged that Poilievre’s refusal to send out a congratulatory social media post to Ford on his election win last month was ungracious.
Poilievre’s first call to Ford came as support in public-opinion polls for the federal Tories is plunging amid a surge for Carney’s Liberals.
During the conversation, sources said the premier expressed his displeasure at how some federal Tories deride his three-term Progressive Conservative government as “not conservative enough.”
But Ford assured Poilievre he always casts a ballot for his local Conservative candidate.
The federal Tories were unhappy that the morning after the phone chat, the premier hosted Liberal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland at his home for coffee.
Ford’s office said that visit had been scheduled long before the Poilievre chat.
Freeland posted selfies with Ford on Instagram and was also his guest at Wednesday’s provincial cabinet swearing-in ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum.
“It’s no secret I have a great relationship with Chrystia Freeland. I have a great relationship with (Intergovernmental Affairs Minister) Dominic LeBlanc,” Ford told reporters Tuesday.
When reporters asked whether he had “a better relationship with Mark Carney or Pierre Poilievre,” he was noncommittal.
“I don’t know either one of them, to be very frank.”
Pressed him on “who would you like to get to know better,” he shrugged.
“Either one. I’ll work with anyone.”
Ford’s uneasy relations with the federal Tories date back years.
During the 2019 election campaign, federal Tory leader Andrew Scheer dissociated himself from the premier.
Adding insult to injury, Scheer held a campaign event 250 metres from Ford’s Etobicoke home with Alberta premier Jason Kenney.
Not only was Ford not invited to the event, he was never even mentioned from the podium.
Last March, after Jamil Jivani, a Poilievre MP, attacked provincial minister Stephen Lecce, the premier warned the Durham representative to stay in his lane.
“To be very frank — and go to root cause — he wouldn’t even be where he is if I didn’t give him that opportunity, ” Ford said of Jivani, who had worked in the premier’s office.
Meanwhile,
Poilievre calls Smith’s oilpatch demands ‘reasonable,’ challenges Carney to disclose foreign oil investments
Smith put out a list of nine non-negotiable demands, concerning Alberta’s oil and gas sector, shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney
Smith put out a list of nine non-negotiable demands, concerning Alberta’s oil and gas sector, shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Edmonton on Thursday.
She warned that whoever becomes Canada’s prime minister after the imminent federal election must meet these demands within the first six months of his mandate or face an “unprecedented national unity crisis.”
“Albertans will no longer tolerate the way we’ve been treated by the federal Liberals over the past 10 years,” wrote Smith, throwing down the gauntlet to all federal leaders.
The premier’s demands mirrored a wish list put forward by 14 of Canada’s leading oil and gas executives earlier this week, in an open letter to the leaders of the four major federal parties.
Poilievre said that economic self-interest could be driving Carney to keep the emissions cap and other anti-oil and gas policies in place.
“You know, maybe the reason why Mr. Carney is… supporting an energy cap, is because he wants to drive even more production to the United States, where his investments are,” said Poilievre.
Poilievre said the only way for Carney to squash this sort of suspicion would be to disclose to Canadians his personal assets and potential conflicts of interest.
Danielle: Canada vs. U.S.A.
Meanwhile in Canada,
Lakefront homes in Canada encased in ice
Lakefront homes in Canada encased in ice
byu/PairRevolutionary669 ininterestingasfuck
Silly of Canada to take it so seriously. Oh wait…
Hmmm
Pierre Poilievre: “We the Conservatives are against Mass Immigration while the Liberals conspire to import “Indentured Servants” by the millions… He blasts Mark Carney for supporting the “Century Initiative” which is to nearly Triple Canada’s population through Mass Immigration which hurts many things in Canada.”
Whaddaya Say?