justin trudeau doug ford

Justin Trudeau keeps taking shots at Doug Ford during press conferences

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Toronto this week, presumably to get in some valuable face time with local leaders (and voters) ahead of Canada's upcoming federal election in October.

Torontonians have been stoked to see the world leader/Vogue coverboy around town, but some are growing confused about who, exactly, he's running against.

Trudeau has brought up Ontario Premier Doug Ford several times in recent days while speaking to reporters, first when announcing a one-time cash infusion of roughly $26 million for legal aid services geared toward refugees.

The money is expected to compensate for funds cut by Ford's government as part of their 2019 budget.

"There's conservative politicians [who] keep trying to move us back and make the most vulnerable hurt for the decisions that they make," said Trudeau while speaking at the Parkdale Intercultural Association.

"Conservative politicians like to say they're for the people but they end up cutting services for the most vulnerable," he continued. "It's what they do."

Some political analysts believe that Trudeau is trying to link his Conservative opponent at the federal level, Andrew Scheer, with Ford, who has proven unpopular among Ontario voters in recent months.

On Tuesday, Trudeau met with Toronto Mayor John Tory to discuss the city's mounting gun violence problem.

Again, the PM mentioned Ford during a joint news conference with the mayor following their meeting.

"What Ontarians have lived through in terms of the cuts to services and the tax cuts for the wealthy by Doug Ford is an example of the approach conservative politicians have when it comes to governing," said Trudeau.

"Conservative politicians say they're 'for the people,' but then they end up cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting services for everyone else," continued Trudeau, reiterating his comments from the day previous.

According to the Toronto Star, Trudeau took "many swipes at Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative government" during the course of the conference, noting that the Ontario PCs had recently cancelled a $14-million community centre in Lawrence Heights.

"It's not entirely clear how Trudeau’s demonization of Doug Ford is going over in Ontario," writes Toronto Star national affairs columnist Thomas Walkom of how the purported strategy is going over.

"The Liberals are inching higher in the polls. But Ontarians don’t usually base their federal election choices on their views of the provincial government."

True enough, but we've never had a Ford in office either. Not at the provincial level, anyway.

Lead photo by

Justin Trudeau


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