Ontario’s Progressive Conservative premier said he is “not worried” about a harsh slew of criticisms of him by a Conservative MP in the aftermath of the federal election.
Asked at Queen’s Park about MP Jamil Jivani accusing him of “sabotaging” the federal Conservatives and being a “hype man” for the federal Liberals, Premier Doug Ford tried brushing the comments aside, saying, “I’m focusing on unity right across the country.”
“We have to bring this country together like we’ve never had before,” Ford continued. “Each other are not the enemies. There’s one person that’s causing a real problem, not just here (but) around the world, and that’s President (Donald) Trump.”
Mark Carney’s Liberals won Monday’s federal election, with the counts completed by midday on Tuesday indicating they were on track for a few seats short of a majority. Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives placed second, with their leader losing his seat in a surprising upset in his riding.
Both major parties improved their seat counts, while support for the third-place Bloc Québécois, fourth-place New Democratic Party and fifth-place Greens cratered compared to the last election.
While speaking to CBC News at an election night event, Jivani, who was re-elected with about 50 per cent of the votes in his riding, teed off on Ford, whose government the Bowmanville—Oshawa North MP previously worked with.
“Look, Doug Ford just went through an election. I have differences of opinion with him. I don’t like how he’s managed health care or education. But, out of respect, we didn’t say anything — the federal party — we didn’t get in his way,” Jivani said. “When it was our turn to run an election, he couldn’t stay out of our business — always getting his criticisms and all of his opinions out; distracting our campaign, trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius that we need to be taking cues from.”
Ford’s provincial PC Party’s campaign manager, Kory Teneycke, was a vocal critic of the federal Conservatives’ strategy throughout much of the Canadian election. Although Ford said at the start of the federal election that he planned to stay out of it, as election day approached, he chimed in a few times, expressing his bewilderment with Poilievre’s strategy.
“Sometimes the truth hurts,” Ford said about two weeks ago, when asked about Teneycke’s comments about the federal Conservatives' “malpractice” by not focusing their campaign around U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats. Ford’s PCs won a third straight majority in Ontario by centring Trump in their provincial campaign earlier this year.
“I see Doug Ford as a problem for Ontario and for Canada,” Jivani added on Monday night. “I think he’s not doing a great job in running this province, and now he’s trying to exercise his influence to other levels of government, and it’s not like this guy’s doing anything particularly well.”
Jivani’s past work with the Ford government spanned about two-and-a-half years. In late 2019, the premier appointed Jivani as a special adviser as Ontario’s first advocate for community opportunities. He resigned from the role in the summer of 2022.
Jivani has been publicly critical of the Ford government a few times since then. The night he was elected MP in a March 2024 byelection, Jivani railed against various “liberal elites” in his victory speech, including “the liberal elites who run the Ontario Ministry of Education.”
On Monday night, Jivani added, “I’m speaking from experience: I tried to fix problems in this province and (Ford) kept getting in (the) way — and all his goons around him all the time.”
“They wouldn’t make anything better,” Jivani said. “And now we’re seeing him — because this guy’s a political genius because he beat Bonnie Crombie and Steven Del Duca? … We’ve got to sit around getting advice from him? No, no.”
“He’s taken the provincial Conservative party and turned it into something hollow; something unprincipled; something that doesn’t solve problems,” he continued. “He’s glad-handing with Chrystia Freeland, having coffees and lattes with Mark Carney, and I’m sitting here saying we need to be fighting for change and something new and something different — not being a hype man to the Liberal party.”
Jivani also labelled Ford an “opportunist” in his postelection interview with CBC News.
While addressing Jivani’s comments on Tuesday, Ford said, “I’m not worried about that.”
“I’m worried about Ontario (and) driving prosperity. No matter if you’re PC or Liberal or NDP, Green party, we all need to work together to look at the common problem right now,” Ford added.
Poilievre suggested in his election night speech that he planned to continue leading the party. He had been an MP since 2004. There were over 80,000 votes cast in his riding of Carleton on Monday, with about 50 per cent going to his Liberal challenger, Bruce Fanjoy, while about 46 per cent were for Poilievre.
Each of the previous two Conservative Party of Canada leaders was effectively forced out of the role in the months following their second-place finishes in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Ford, on Tuesday, said, “I focus on Ontario, I love my job,” in response to a question about whether he would pursue the leadership of the federal Conservatives.
