Just out of his third consecutive victory in the elections, the Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, seems happy to see the struggle to form the next federal government from the side, but is an expert in battle who says he cannot stay out even if he tries.
Ford returned to Power almost a month after calling a pressure vote against the tariff war of US President Donald Trump. The prime minister has accumulated political capital in the archive as an vocal opponent of the rates imposed from the south of the border, which helped him consolidate his re -elected majority government.
But while the tariff battle and Trump seem to become an important question of federal polls, the progressive conservative prime minister has indicated that he is planning to stay out of that battle, something that his office confirmed to CBC News.
When asked this week with whom he would have a better relationship, conservative leader Pierre Poilievre or liberal leader Mark Carly, Ford did not say.
“I will work with anyone,” he said, but admitted that “it is not secret” that has developed close relations with some federal ministers of liberal cabinets, including Chrystia Freeland and Dominic Leblanc.
“I don’t know any of them, to be very frank,” Ford said about Pailievre and Carney.
The Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford and his new cabinet, swore on Wednesday, three weeks after winning a third consecutive majority government. As Lorenda Reddekopp of CBC reports, the cabinet remains the same size, with only a few shuffs in roles.
Ford remained out of 2019, 2021 federal elections
The Larkssa Waler conservative strategist, former spokesman for Prime Minister, said Ford’s decision to stay away from the campaign is consistent with his last approach. Intentionally remained outside the center of attention during federal campaigns of 2019 and 2021.
But things could be different this time due to Trump’s commercial war, he added. Even if Ford wants to avoid the campaign, his duties as the main of Ontario mean that he has to talk about the new developments that inevitate be part of the established federal theme, said Waler, founder of Henley Strategies.
“Doug Ford has really earned that Captain Canada person will still be in the news doing that,” he said. “I think it will be very disciplined in the words you use.”
The Professor of Political Science of the McMaster University, Peter Graefe, said that Trump’s frequent reflections on tariffs will also mean that Mark Carney must respond as prime minister. Then, Ford can be literally stopped next to the other with Carney while fighting taxes.
“I imagine that (Ford) will continue to be involved in any policy related to tariffs,” he said. “That will tend to bring it to Mark Carney during that period.”
The Professor of Political Science at the University of Trent, Cristine de Clercy, said that volatility in federal surveys, who have shown a close career between conservatives and liberals, could also make it risky to get involved. Ford cannot afford to anyone who can form the government, he added.
“The prime ministers depend on Ottawa, particularly because of their ability to spend large tickets for tickets such as infrastructure and roads and transport,” he said. “Due to all these things, it is a silly something in our system that a prime minister gets too involved in the federal level or chooses deeply personal fights with people in the federal government.”
Graefe said that has not prevented Ford from campaigning aggressively against the federal carbon tax for years or taking vaccines against former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his policy differences. Ford has a story of being a combative partisan at all policy levels, he said.
“It’s difficult with Doug Ford because he loves to do partisan things when everything is said and done,” he said.
Federal parties could take lessons from Ontario elections
The former liberal cabinet minister John Milloy said that federal parties could learn lessons from the recent electoral victory of the Ontario PCs. They saw that campaign correctly as a fight against Trump and tariffs, and adapted their approach accordingly, he said.
“Ford seemed to have a path to follow, and people gravitated him because they found some security,” said Milloy, now director of the Center for Public Ethics at Martin Luther University College. “And I think that is about federal elections.”
Milloy said Ford’s decision to stay out of the campaign is remarkable.
“The fact that you have chosen to sit and not support your federal cousins is sending a great sign,” said Milloy.
“It is sending a signal to voters that conservatives, provincial conservatives and their federal cousins are not particularly close.”
But Waler said he is not reading too much in Ford’s insistence that he doesn’t want to get involved. Federal conservatives and the progressive conservatives of Ontario have fewer links than the NDP and federal liberals and their provincial counterparts, he said.
Some of that is due to the sensitivity of Ontario voters, he added.
“(The parties) do not even share the same name and do not share the same strategies,” Waler said. “How would you talk and convince a voter of Ontario PC is sometimes different from how you would talk and convince a federal conservative voter.”
