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“Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election,” the premier said, referring to the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ re-election on Feb. 27.

“Matter of fact, he … or one of his lieutenants told every one of his members, don’t you dare go out and help the PCs,” he said.

“Isn’t that ironic?”

Indeed, federal sources told the Star that after Ford’s Tories were re-elected in February, Poilievre’s office specifically instructed Conservative MPs not to publicly congratulate the provincial party on a third consecutive majority victory.

At events on Parliament Hill on Feb. 28, Tory MPs from Ontario were ordered to keep their mouths shut about the PC win — even though many rely upon the same campaign volunteers in their ridings.

Asked about the “bad blood” between the federal and provincial parties, Ford suggested he is not to blame.

“Well, all they have to do is make a phone call,” he said.

The Star revealed last month that Poilievre finally reached out to Ford for the first time on March 17, some two and a half years after he became federal leader.

“I like a lot of the MPs, but the people spoke and they spoke loud and clear,” said the premier, who remained in constant contact with Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney throughout the federal campaign.

“They spoke loud and clear in our election. They spoke loud and clear on the federal election. That’s democracy. They elect who they want.”

On CTV Power Play, Tory MP Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu-Appelle), a former party leader, was unrepentant about the CPC approach to Ford.

“Pierre Poilievre is more popular in Ontario than Doug Ford is — just based on the votes. More people wanted Pierre Poilievre to be prime minister than wanted Doug Ford to be premier,” Scheer told host Vassy Kapelos.

That’s a reference to Poilievre’s Tories receiving 3.3 million votes in the larger turnout federal election compared to the 2.1 million ballots cast for Ford’s PCs in February.

But Kapelos pointed out to Scheer that the provincial Tories won a majority government while the federal party finished behind the Liberals.

Ford’s comments came after Tory MP Jamil Jivani (Bowmanville-Oshawa North) accused him early Tuesday of “sabotaging” a federal campaign that saw Poilievre lose his Ottawa-area seat of Carleton.

Jivani took to  posting a doctored photo of the premier as a professional wrestler ripping off a yellow Ontario PC singlet to reveal a red T-shirt emblazoned with the Liberal logo.

: “I think Jamil Jivani will be resigning his seat so that Pierre Poilievre can run there. But these meme skills should make him a leading candidate to run the CPC social media going forward.”

The social media flap followed Jivani’s headline-making interview early Tuesday with the CBC’s David Common.

“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,” said Jivani.

“I see Doug Ford as a problem for Ontario and for Canada,” said the MP, who had worked as an aide in the premier’s office at Queen’s Park during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He’s not doing a great job in running this province, and now he’s trying to exercise his influence over other levels of government and it’s not like this guy is doing anything particularly well,” said Jivani.

“I’m speaking from experience. I tried to fix problems in this province, and he kept getting in his way, and all his goons around him all the time, they wouldn’t make anything better.”

A visibly disappointed Jivani told Common that Ford was a “hype man” for the Liberals and wanted them to be re-elected.

“He has taken the provincial Conservative party and turned it into something hollow, unprincipled, something that doesn’t solve problems. He’s glad-handing with (Transport Minister) Chrystia Freeland, having coffees and lattes with Mark Carney.”

In the run-up to the election, Ford had criticized Poilievre’s campaign for not using his successful campaign blueprint to make the vote a referendum on U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada.

“Sometimes the truth hurts,” he said two weeks ago when pressed on his political guru Kory Teneycke’s comment that the federal Conservatives were guilty of “campaign malpractice” for failing to use Trump as the ballot question.

The defeat of Poilievre, who served as the MP for Carleton for 21 years, was especially stinging because the federal Tories did relatively well in Ontario on Monday.

They won 53 of the province’s 122 seats to 69 for the Liberals. The New Democrats were wiped out here.

Carney’s Liberals received 49 per cent of the popular vote in Ontario to 43.8 per cent for Poilievre’s Tories and 4.9 per cent for Jagmeet Singh’s NDP.