Doug Ford, Tim Houston defend decision to not help federal Tories during election

OTTAWA — Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston defended their respective decisions to not to help Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives during the federal election, arguing that Poilievre’s team had previously pushed them away. Speaking in Halifax on Wednesday, Houston confirmed prior reports that he had voluntarily decided to steer clear of the federal election — even snubbing a Poilievre rally minutes from his own riding in N.S. — because of simmering tensions with the federal Tories. “I think the Conservative Party of Canada was very good at pushing people away, not so good at pulling people in,” said the premier. “I think they probably saw that in some of the results they had across the country.” Mark Carney’s Liberals managed to elect a minority government of 169 MPs — three seats short of a majority — while Poilievre’s Conservatives elected 144 MPs. Conservatives lost two incumbent MPs in N.S. — Rick Perkins and Stephen Ellis — leaving the federal party with Chris d’Entremont as their sole representative in the province. Ford, who was speaking in Mississauga earlier in the day, also explained why he and his team did not help the federal Conservatives win enough seats to form government. “Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election. (As a) matter of fact, him, or one of his lieutenants, told every one of his members, ‘Don’t you dare go out and help the (Progressive Conservatives)’. Isn’t that ironic?” Ford told reporters. Ford’s pollster, Nick Kouvalis, wrote on X on April 14 that Conservative MPs, candidates and prospective candidates were “ordered” to not help Ford or his Ontario PC candidates in their re-election bid only two months ago. Despite that, Kouvalis said he went “super hard” during the Ontario election to ensure that Vince Gasparro — who was running for the Ontario Liberals in the provincial riding of Eglinton—Lawrence in Toronto — would lose “as a favour to the CPC leadership.” Gasparro used to date Poilievre’s closest adviser, Jenni Byrne. He was defeated in the provincial race by under 200 votes. However, fate has found a way to bring him to Ottawa. Gasparro ended up running for the federal Liberals for the same riding he had lost provincially only weeks before. On Tuesday, he was declared the winner against Conservative candidate Karen Stintz by 875 votes. On Wednesday, Ford hinted he was not going to waste his breath analyzing the election and said Canadians had made their choice. Federal Tories notably picked up more seats in southwestern Ontario and in the Greater Toronto Area. “The people spoke, and I have no say in who people vote for, but I’ll tell you one thing: we have a government, democratically elected. I will hold them accountable,” said Ford. The bad blood between Poilievre’s Conservatives and Ford’s Progressive Conservatives has been simmering in recent years, but it was put on display during the campaign. On the Curse of Politics podcast, Kory Teneycke, who managed Ford’s three majority victories, warned the Poilievre team they needed to pivot to focus on the economic threats of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs or risk losing the federal election. Teneycke also criticized the federal party for committing “campaign malpractice” at the highest level and said Poilievre losing his 20-point lead would be “studied for decades.” Ford came to his campaign manager’s defence at the time: “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,” he told reporters. Ford concluded his remarks by saying “sometimes the truth hurts.” On election night, Conservative incumbent Jamil Jivani delivered a scathing response to Ford . During an interview on CBC, Jivani accused the premier of having sabotaged the federal campaign and for having acted as a “hype man for the Liberal party.” “He couldn’t stay out of our business, always getting his criticisms and all his opinions out, distracting our campaign, trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius that we needed to be taking cues from,” Jivani said. On Wednesday, the newly re-elected MP tweeted an AI-generated picture of Ford ripping a yellow Ontario PC shirt — unveiling a red Liberal party shirt underneath.

pic.twitter.com/vayn93CXfj— Jamil Jivani (@jamiljivani) April 30, 2025

“Not helpful at all Jamil. You can do better than that,” wrote former MP Ed Fast. Ford said he is only a phone call away if Poilievre’s Tories wants to start building bridges within the conservative movement. Houston said he hopes they “do some soul-searching on what they believe it means to be a Conservative.” “There are many, many shades of blue,” he said. National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

• 'Hype man for the Liberal party': Ontario Tory Jamil Jivani unloads on Premier Doug Ford
• Liberals pick up extra seat in Quebec — bringing the projected number of seats to 169

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