Federal vote could derail Ford's plans

As Doug Ford counts down to an early spring election, watch out for the fallout from a federal election he hadn’t counted on — even earlier next spring.

- MARTIN REGG COHN

It’s now looking as if his best-laid plans to get out ahead of events could be overtaken by events in Ottawa. This week, the federal NDP announced a breakup by “ripping up” its two-year nonelection accord with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

That’s politics. When you play politics, there’s always a faster player in town.

The premier had fervently hoped to beat the clock on a police probe into the Greenbelt imbroglio. But there was always a second motive for flouting the province’s fixed election date law, which mandates a vote nearly two years from now in June 2026.

That’s an eternity in politics. Ford’s provincial Tories have long worried that their fellow Tory, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, could already be in the prime minister’s office by then.

Which would make for an awkward federal-provincial byplay, pitting these two fellow travellers — who are far from pals — against one another on the public stage. Far better to steer clear of a collision course that could be personal, political, fiscal and ideological.

For Ford and Poilievre are utterly unlike one another:

The premier can be personable when he is feeling folksy; Poilievre is prone to being impersonal and impetuous.

Ford is a salesman at heart, cutting deals in the business world; his federal Conservative counterpart is a career politician who is quick to cut people down.