Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters in Montreal on April 14, 2025.Peter McCabe/Reuters
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the federal Conservatives would be in a better position if his own campaign manager, Kory Teneycke, was overseeing Pierre Poilievre’s election strategy.
Mr. Ford on Monday waded into the latest fracas between the provincial and federal Conservative parties, speaking out in support of Mr. Teneycke, who has accused Mr. Poilievre’s team of committing “campaign malpractice” by blowing an almost 25-point lead heading into the election.
“He’s the best campaign manager in the country. And to be very frank, if Kory was running that campaign, I don’t think Mr. Poilievre would be in the position he’s in right now,” Mr. Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park.
“But there’s still a lot of time left. We still have debates. At the end of the day, the people will decide which way we want this country to move forward, but sometimes the truth hurts.”
Mr. Teneycke, who managed the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ three consecutive majority victories, has criticized the Poilievre team, led by campaign manager Jenni Byrne, for not pivoting earlier in the campaign to focus on the economic threat of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Mr. Teneycke said in a podcast released last week that the party is losing the election and has committed “campaign malpractice” at the highest level.
He said on the Curse of Politics podcast that the Poilievre campaign would be “studied for decades” as a “disaster in terms of having lost a massive lead in ways that are so obvious.”
Mr. Poilievre has dismissed the comments as coming from “Liberals and lobbyists” who want him to stop talking about issues such as high food prices and housing costs.
The federal Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Ford’s statement.
The Liberal Party has seen a resurgence in the polls after prime minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation earlier this year. While the Conservatives were leading by double digits heading into the election, the Liberals are now ahead, with leader Mark Carney leading consistently on the issues of leadership and standing up to Mr. Trump.
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But the race appears to be tightening in recent days, with the Conservatives starting to narrow the polling gap.
Mr. Teneycke also addressed the Conservative election strategy early on in the campaign during a talk at the Empire Club of Canada in late March. He said Mr. Poilievre will lose unless he quickly pivots and responds to Canadians’ fear and anxiety over Mr. Trump’s economic war against Canada.
In Ontario’s February election, Mr. Ford was laser-focused on Mr. Trump’s tariff threats, seeking a mandate to stand up to the U.S. President.
“You got to get on that issue,” Mr. Teneycke said. “And you know, you might not totally win, but you can’t lose by 20 points on it. You can’t get blown away on it.”
He later added: “If they don’t get on it, and get on it quick, they are going to get obliterated.”
He also said Mr. Poilievre has “basic unlikability” and shares too many commonalities with the U.S. President, including his campaign slogan “Canada First,” which emulates Mr. Trump’s “America First.”
“He looks too much like Trump. He sounds too much like Trump. He uses the lexicon of Trump,” Mr. Teneycke said.
Mr. Poilievre has been highly critical of Mr. Trump during the campaign, accusing him of disrespecting Canada and calling the tariffs uncalled for and unjustified.
He has said he’s not blaming Mr. Carney for the tariffs, but added that the Liberal Leader is running his entire campaign on “magical, masterful negotiating techniques” that suggest that Mr. Trump can somehow be controlled.
“Well, we know now that that is not true. Nobody can control this President,” Mr. Poilievre said last week.
PC pollster Nick Kouvalis, in a post on X, outlined some of the tensions between the federal and provincial parties.
He said that for years, Mr. Poilievre did not reach out to Mr. Ford, who has previously said that the Conservative Leader called him for the first time in late March.
Mr. Kouvalis also said the Conservative Party of Canada did not help Mr. Ford’s PCs in the recent provincial election, and held a large rally as advance voting began in Ontario, drawing away resources. He added that many provincial PCs are in fact supporting Mr. Poilievre’s campaign.
“Ford did not issue an edict for his MPPs and their staff to stay out of the CPC Campaign. Anyone that has pulled back has done so of their own choosing and for various reasons,” Mr. Kouvalis wrote.