IMHO, Pierre is making a dumb mistake by not even congratulating Doug on his latest election win. Instead Dougieeee is now cozying up to Carney. Similar to how Doug was phone buddies with Freeland during the pandemic. Here's a good Toronto Star article describing Dougiesss breakfast meeting with Carney in Etobicoke on March 12th. The more I think about things, the more I think that Carney will win the election. IMHO, Pierre's advisors are just plain dumb, and out of touch!!
Opinion | This is why Doug Ford is so buddy-buddy with Mark Carney. Where does that leave Pierre Poilievre?
Updated 2 hrs ago
March 15, 2025
3 min read
Save
Premier Doug Ford, left, and federal Liberal Leader Mark Carney meet at Wally’s Grill in Etobicoke on March 12, 2025.
supplied photo
By Martin Regg CohnPolitical Columnist
Martin Regg Cohn is a Toronto-based columnist focusing on Ontario politics and international affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reggcohn.
Power breakfasts aren’t on the menu at Wally’s Grill most days.
The Etobicoke diner does scrambled eggs for everyday folks. It rarely unscrambles big problems for big politicians.
So when Doug Ford sat down this week with Mark Carney, he set the table for an unlikely alliance: Canada’s most powerful Tory and the country’s most powerful Liberal getting together to start a new day.
Ontario’s three-term premier invited Canada’s zero-term prime minister (just ahead of Friday’s swearing-in and the coming election campaign) for a face-to-face and heart-to-heart. Now they are shoulder to shoulder.
The photo-op — snapped by Ford’s official photographer and helpfully distributed to the media for publication — tells the story of an old pol and his new pal comparing notes. But there’s something wrong with this picture that raises an awkward question:
Guess who’s not coming to breakfast — not anytime soon?
Answer: Pierre Poilievre — the man who would be prime minister, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Missing from the photo and missing in action. Never invited to see and be seen (or photographed) with Ford, whether at Wally’s or anywhere else.
Not for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Not even coffee.
By contrast, Carney joins the club of Liberals who are part of Ford’s circle of erstwhile adversaries who are now earnest advisers. That collection of cabinet ministers and prime ministers includes Dominic LeBlanc, Chrystia Freeland, François-Philippe Champagne, Justin Trudeau and now Carney.
They are trusted phone pals of the premier, discussing consequential matters of state and confidential questions of political stagecraft. Of course, Ford’s phone circle is far from exclusive, given that he shares his mobile number publicly and has taken tens of thousands of calls since becoming premier in 2018.
He’ll take a call from just about anyone. Just not yet Poilievre — who didn’t even bother to congratulate Ford’s Tories on last month’s election triumph.
What’s keeping them apart? After all, they are fellow travellers and forever Tories, equal parts populist and anti-elitist.
By rights, these two right-wingers should be soul mates. Yet they are on entirely different wavelengths.
Ford has evolved into a people-pleasing populist who craves popularity, which means expanding Ontario’s Tory base into a broader pool of voters. The premier thinks of his provincial Progressive Conservatives and the federal Liberals through the frame of a Venn diagram with converging areas of support.
He understands that his supporters also voted for Trudeau and may now for Carney, so he watches his words and eyes their images. After all, Ford’s own riding of Etobicoke North is one of the safest federal seats in Ontario.
Carney came to kiss the ring at Wally’s because he, too, understands the virtue of Venn diagrams. Poilievre doesn’t do rings, or Wally’s or Venn diagrams.
Poilievre is a disruptive populist who pokes and prods. He has embraced anti-elitism with a vengeance, hence his venomous attacks on Carney as he tries to cut the former central banker’s formidable CV down to size.
Canada is famous for its tall poppy syndrome — where people lop off those who rise above the rest. He plans to decapitate Carney.
Ford takes a different tack. The premier never completed college, but his three majority election victories suggest he knows a thing or two about political science.
He once disparaged the elites but now takes advice from them. All that changed after the pandemic changed him, because as COVID peaked, Ford was on the phone regularly with top scientists and hospital CEOS.
Ever since, he has taken advice from the smartest civil servants and political operatives. Now, as the economy tanks, the premier talks all the time with some of the savviest corporate CEOs – many of whom Poilievre disdains and distances himself from.
Perhaps that’s why Ford views only Carney’s good side, while Poilievre sees only his dark side.
After breakfast together, Ford’s verdict was unlike anything you’d ever hear the federal Conservative leader say:
“I can tell you one thing, Mark Carney (has an) extremely astute business mind — he understands numbers,” Ford mused.
Ford observed that U.S. President Donald Trump kept mocking Trudeau as prime minister, but might now turn the page with Carney because of the very resume that Poilievre belittles:
“I think they’re going to get along very well — they both come from the same financial sectors,” the premier said pointedly to reporters.
Ford has never paid Poilievre a similar compliment, possibly because the federal opposition leader has no business experience (as Ford does) before becoming a career politician. Tellingly, shortly after tutoring the federal Liberal leader in retail politics and praising his smarts, Ford took a vow of silence for the coming campaign.
Enough said. Point made.
Opinion | This is why Doug Ford is so buddy-buddy with Mark Carney. Where does that leave Pierre Poilievre?
Updated 2 hrs ago
March 15, 2025
3 min read
Save
Premier Doug Ford, left, and federal Liberal Leader Mark Carney meet at Wally’s Grill in Etobicoke on March 12, 2025.
supplied photo
By Martin Regg CohnPolitical Columnist
Martin Regg Cohn is a Toronto-based columnist focusing on Ontario politics and international affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reggcohn.
Power breakfasts aren’t on the menu at Wally’s Grill most days.
The Etobicoke diner does scrambled eggs for everyday folks. It rarely unscrambles big problems for big politicians.
So when Doug Ford sat down this week with Mark Carney, he set the table for an unlikely alliance: Canada’s most powerful Tory and the country’s most powerful Liberal getting together to start a new day.
Ontario’s three-term premier invited Canada’s zero-term prime minister (just ahead of Friday’s swearing-in and the coming election campaign) for a face-to-face and heart-to-heart. Now they are shoulder to shoulder.
The photo-op — snapped by Ford’s official photographer and helpfully distributed to the media for publication — tells the story of an old pol and his new pal comparing notes. But there’s something wrong with this picture that raises an awkward question:
Guess who’s not coming to breakfast — not anytime soon?
Answer: Pierre Poilievre — the man who would be prime minister, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Missing from the photo and missing in action. Never invited to see and be seen (or photographed) with Ford, whether at Wally’s or anywhere else.
Not for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Not even coffee.
By contrast, Carney joins the club of Liberals who are part of Ford’s circle of erstwhile adversaries who are now earnest advisers. That collection of cabinet ministers and prime ministers includes Dominic LeBlanc, Chrystia Freeland, François-Philippe Champagne, Justin Trudeau and now Carney.
They are trusted phone pals of the premier, discussing consequential matters of state and confidential questions of political stagecraft. Of course, Ford’s phone circle is far from exclusive, given that he shares his mobile number publicly and has taken tens of thousands of calls since becoming premier in 2018.
He’ll take a call from just about anyone. Just not yet Poilievre — who didn’t even bother to congratulate Ford’s Tories on last month’s election triumph.
What’s keeping them apart? After all, they are fellow travellers and forever Tories, equal parts populist and anti-elitist.
By rights, these two right-wingers should be soul mates. Yet they are on entirely different wavelengths.
Ford has evolved into a people-pleasing populist who craves popularity, which means expanding Ontario’s Tory base into a broader pool of voters. The premier thinks of his provincial Progressive Conservatives and the federal Liberals through the frame of a Venn diagram with converging areas of support.
He understands that his supporters also voted for Trudeau and may now for Carney, so he watches his words and eyes their images. After all, Ford’s own riding of Etobicoke North is one of the safest federal seats in Ontario.
Carney came to kiss the ring at Wally’s because he, too, understands the virtue of Venn diagrams. Poilievre doesn’t do rings, or Wally’s or Venn diagrams.
Poilievre is a disruptive populist who pokes and prods. He has embraced anti-elitism with a vengeance, hence his venomous attacks on Carney as he tries to cut the former central banker’s formidable CV down to size.
Canada is famous for its tall poppy syndrome — where people lop off those who rise above the rest. He plans to decapitate Carney.
Ford takes a different tack. The premier never completed college, but his three majority election victories suggest he knows a thing or two about political science.
He once disparaged the elites but now takes advice from them. All that changed after the pandemic changed him, because as COVID peaked, Ford was on the phone regularly with top scientists and hospital CEOS.
Ever since, he has taken advice from the smartest civil servants and political operatives. Now, as the economy tanks, the premier talks all the time with some of the savviest corporate CEOs – many of whom Poilievre disdains and distances himself from.
Perhaps that’s why Ford views only Carney’s good side, while Poilievre sees only his dark side.
After breakfast together, Ford’s verdict was unlike anything you’d ever hear the federal Conservative leader say:
“I can tell you one thing, Mark Carney (has an) extremely astute business mind — he understands numbers,” Ford mused.
Ford observed that U.S. President Donald Trump kept mocking Trudeau as prime minister, but might now turn the page with Carney because of the very resume that Poilievre belittles:
“I think they’re going to get along very well — they both come from the same financial sectors,” the premier said pointedly to reporters.
Ford has never paid Poilievre a similar compliment, possibly because the federal opposition leader has no business experience (as Ford does) before becoming a career politician. Tellingly, shortly after tutoring the federal Liberal leader in retail politics and praising his smarts, Ford took a vow of silence for the coming campaign.
Enough said. Point made.
