DEI Doug Loves Mark Carney — Nobody Should Be Surprised

By: Thomas Gregory

Written On: 2025-05-09

Doug Ford threw Pierre Poilievre under the bus during his campaign to become Prime Minister. It shouldn’t be surprising; this is just one of many incidents where Doug Ford has shown himself a Liberal disguising himself as a Conservative.

Canada’s recent election cycle could be described as bizarre at best in a variety of ways; it’s impossible to focus on all the reasons why. Due to this, many have centrally focused on Mark Carney’s democratically grey appointment as Prime Minister, or his subsequent Minority government victory. While this is understandable, many on the right find themselves confused by Ford’s friendliness towards Carney. At a surface level, this is understandable — after all, Mark Carney is a Liberal and Doug Ford is a Conservative, right?

Ford certainly shouldn’t have a stronger relationship with, or higher opinion of Carney
than he does of Poilievre, right? Well, I hate to break it to people, but not only does Ford have a significantly higher opinion of Carney than he does of Poilievre, but it also really shouldn’t surprise anybody. If one’s been paying attention to Ford’s actions since he became the Premier in 2018, it should be abundantly clear that his policies are significantly more in line with those of the federal Liberal Party than those of the federal Conservative Party. There have been numerous instances wherein Ford subsidized the exact projects the federal Liberals did or unapologetically voted in favour of Liberal or NDP bills.

Before the 2025 Provincial Election, Ford was already quietly making it very clear that he is about as red as a Tory can get, however, many didn’t notice because most don’t focus on what politicians do, but rather what they say. Ford would distract from all of his Liberal actions through branding or the use of Conservative rhetoric, such as recently when Ford said he wanted the death penalty to return.

This served primarily to fool genuine Conservatives who don’t have the time to research everything into supporting him, while simultaneously keeping the Liberal vote through being even more economically left than Kathleen Wynne. He’d concede to the left by unapologetically throwing enough money around to win their vote, and fool the right into supporting him by presenting himself as more Conservative than he is.

This is very clearly the case when you compare Ford’s spending history to previous Liberal Premiers. He spends far more than they ever did per capita, even when you account for inflation and the relief spending which was put into place during the lockdowns. In recent weeks, things have changed. Ford won his third term in February, and just like everyone else, he realizes that a fourth isn’t a particularly likely outcome.

Ford no longer has to pretend to be a Conservative while appealing to the left — he no longer has to walk that tightrope because he’s already fooled everybody for long enough to get his three terms. As such, his appeals to the left are becoming more obvious than ever, but what does this all say about what we can expect from Ford in his third term? Particularly, what can we expect regarding Ford’s relationship with Mark Carney?

Well, all one needs to do to answer those questions is compare how he has behaved during the election towards Carney and Poilievre. Following Mark Carney’s appointment as Liberal leader, Ford congratulated Carney and referred to him as “our next prime minister.” — while this statement was technically accurate, to say this with such enthusiasm prior to Carney facing the electorate reveals how positively he views him, as well as a desire for him to win.

In addition to this, he praised Carney’s insane plan to address U.S. trade tensions through retaliatory tariffs. Early on in the election, Doug Ford met with Mark Carney while avoiding any possible interaction with Poillievre. Following his “productive meeting” with Carney, he praised him in such a way which showed his clear preference for Carney, claiming that Carney has an exceptionally astute business mind that will gel better with President Trump than Trudeau’s. A statement of this nature shows an inherent desire for Carney to be the one who handles Canadian-U.S. relations rather than Poilievre. This is about as close to endorsing someone as you can get without officially endorsing them.

Overall, Ford is exceptionally biased in favour of the Liberals. This can be seen in how he thanked Trudeau for his service when he retired, how he described Chrystia Freeland as a close friend, how he praised Mark Carney as a person and economist, and how he uses identical Team Canada messaging about “strength” and “unity,” which the Liberals use.

Following the end of the election, Ford not only congratulated Carney on his victory but also personally thanked every Liberal candidate who put their name forward, emphasizing how excited he is to work with them. Once again, this is not a surprise when you look at how much he’s cooperated and worked with them in the past. Nothing has changed; it’s just become more obvious.

This is distinct difference from how Ford has acted towards Poilievre. While technically speaking, he did not endorse any Federal candidate during the election period. The unsubtle praise towards Carney listed above, mixed with his passive aggressiveness towards the Federal Conservatives, clearly reveals that Ford did support Carney; he just wouldn’t say it outright during the election. Ford essentially ignored Poilievre entirely or took the occasional shot at his campaign management, only ever validating Carney’s abilities. He did not care whether Poilievre would lose.

When asked in mid-March about a media story claiming Poilievre had personally asked Ford for campaign help, Ford denied it. He told reporters that the call with Poilievre was to discuss Ontario’s priorities, not the Federal campaign. While this could be true, it is also true that he didn’t help Pierre’s campaign at all; he never offered to, nor did he ever praise Poilievre’s campaign or platform in the same manner that he did Carney’s. In short, he kept a substantial distance between himself and federal Conservatives. While this may have been appropriate if he had treated Carney in the same manner, he didn’t — rather, he praised Carney regularly despite not directly endorsing him, and echoed identical sentiments to those of the Liberal Party.

This might as well have been an endorsement — people are smart enough to connect the dots, despite what he may think.

The takeaway from all of this ultimately is that, just like always, Ford will continue to back what the left-wing represents rather than the right-wing. However, what may change is the overtness of these loyalties. As I said at the start of the article, Ford has already won his three terms — he’s already pulled the wig over people’s heads, and unfortunately, since no one knows any better, we will feel the full consequences of that. How obvious he is about that, given where he is in his career, is likely to increase. He doesn’t have anything to lose now.

Even once Ford is gone, he has irreparably reshaped the Ontario PC Party into a provincial version of the federal Liberals. If Ontario ever has any hope of escaping the disastrous left-wing policies which have infested our country and our province, Conservative voters must, one way or another, educate themselves on and choose to support the New Blue Party. Otherwise, things will continue down the path that they have been with no hope of recourse.