Ontario Premier Doug Ford has come to the defence of his campaign manager Kory Teneycke, who has accused the federal Conservative team of “campaign malpractice” due to the party’s slide in the polls.
“He’s tough as nails, but 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,” Ford said during a press conference in Toronto on April 14.
Ford said while there is still time for the Tories to turn their poll numbers around before the April 28 election, and the English and French debates may help them, “the people will decide which way they want this country to move forward.”
“But sometimes, the truth hurts,” he added.
Teneycke, who served as Ford’s campaign manager and helped him win three majority governments, was quoted in a March 27 Toronto Star article as saying there is “every buzzer and alarm” going off in the Conservative campaign as polls have shifted in favour of the Liberal Party.
Then, during a Curse of Politics podcast episode on April 10, Teneycke said the Conservative team had engaged in “campaign malpractice at the highest level” by “blowing a 25-point lead and being, like, 10 points down.”
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Teneycke has criticized Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign for not pivoting its messaging to focus more on U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives’ (PC) 2025 provincial election campaign was managed by Teneycke, who focused heavily on responding to Trump’s tariffs and his comments on wanting Canada to be a part of the United States, with Ford often wearing a hat that said “Canada Is Not for Sale,” and saying he would put export tariffs on electricity to the United States.
He went ahead with imposing the export tariffs in early March, which resulted in Trump threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Ford responded by dropping the tariffs, saying he had secured a meeting with the U.S. commerce secretary to discuss trade.
Teneycke has also played a key role in shaping the Ford PCs’ policies on issues that have high impact in the media. During the pandemic, he was instrumental in ousting PC MPP Rick Nicholls from caucus for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19, criticizing Nicholls in media interviews.
Ford won his third straight majority government in the Feb. 27 provincial election, winning 80 seats to the NDP’s 27 seats, the Liberals’ 14, and the Greens’ two. Ford said he called the early election because he needed a “clear mandate” from Ontario voters to respond to Trump’s tariffs.
While Poilievre’s Conservatives were polling in majority territory in December 2024, a Liberal resurgence resulted from the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Jan. 6, Mark Carney becoming prime minister on March 14, and Trump’s tariff threats. According to polling aggregator 338Canada, the Liberals have 43 percent support, while the Conservatives are at 38 percent and the NDP at 9 percent.
However, Darrell Bricker, CEO of polling company Ipsos Public Affairs, noted on April 14 that polls show the Liberal lead becoming smaller and the “federal race tightening” because “anxiety related to Trump and Canada has eased a bit.”
On a social media post, Bricker said the change has “shifted voter focus back to affordability and other economic issues that favour” the Conservatives, while bringing the Liberal record “back into discussion,” also benefiting the Conservatives.
Poilievre has rejected critics who want him to pivot the campaign to focus more on Trump, telling reporters on March 31 that he would continue talking about issues like drug overdoses, increased food bank use, and the housing crisis.
“The unjustified threats by President Trump further strengthen the argument in favour of the ‘Canada First’ agenda that I’ve been fighting for my whole life,” Poilievre said. “We will continue, despite calls to the contrary, to talk about those things even if I am the only leader in the country that offers any change.”
