Ford running federally, his relationship with Carney and why can't Canada get a deal...

Can you imagine all the Premiers and the PM in matching hoodies by the campfire?

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Speculation won’t stop about Doug Ford running to become the federal leader of the Conservative Party, but I don’t see it happening.

After Ford hosted the Premiers from across the country and Prime Minister Mark Carney this week, tongues got wagging again. Sabrina Nanji, who has some of the best insight into Queen’s Park as the woman behind the Queen’s Park Observer, was all over the idea that Ford was really positioning for a federal run.

“Ontario’s Premier didn’t just wrap up his turn as chair of the Council of the Federation this week — he all but kicked off a soft federal audition, fuelling evergreen rumours that he’s eyeing the PM’s seat.”

There are few problems with that including that Ford would be horrible as an opposition leader. He has no interest in being Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in Ottawa and has very little interest in most federal issues.

Ford is a guy interested in getting things done, and opposition leaders don’t get much done.

As much as I respect Nanji’s insights, and I do, I think she’s off mark here and so are others pushing Ford as a federal candidate. That said, I could be proven wrong at any moment by Ford who is unpredictable.

Were there a direct path for Ford to be PM, I’m sure he would jump at it, but I don’t see him sitting on the opposition benches, managing an unruly caucus and waiting his turn.

There is also the problem that he’s spent so much time praising Mark Carney. If you thought it was bad enough that Ford had said he stood shoulder to shoulder with Justin Trudeau during the pandemic, he’s been closer to Carney in the few months that we’ve had the new PM.

Ford would have a difficult time getting votes in a CPC leadership race in any riding West of the Ontario-Manitoba border.

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Were there matching PJ’s at the sleepover…

I’ve heard lots of laughter after Doug Ford said that he and Mark Carney stayed up until the wee hours sitting by the fire.

“Did they wear matching PJs?”

“Did they braid each other’s hair?”

Those were some of the messages and comments that I got after Ford spoke about his time with Carney at the cottage.

“So, full disclosure, Prime Minister stayed at my place. We had dinner. We’re up till 12:30 at night, chatting in front of the fireplace, solving all the world’s problems,” Ford said on Tuesday.

In reality, the PM and Premiers weren’t inside by a fireplace, they were outside by a fire pit with Ford handing out Fordnation hoodies to anyone who would take one. My sources say almost all of them were in these Fordnation hoodies as they stood around the fire chatting, but no one will provide the photo evidence.

“That’s where you get the work done. You have heart-to-heart conversations one-on-one,” Ford told me during our one-on-one on Wednesday afternoon.

You can watch my full chat with Ford here.

I call this a chat because I don’t do interviews, I do conversations. In my view, and I got this from one of my talk radio mentors, you invite someone in, you have a conversation and you try to give your audience some information that they didn’t have before.

Whether it is Ford, or hopefully soon a conversation with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, you have a chat. If you want someone who will yell at their guest and berate them, then go somewhere else. That has never been my style and never will be, whether it is a politician that I agree with and support or one that I oppose.

The goal is to talk with my fellow Canadians and give you, the audience, more information.

BTW, speaking of information you didn’t have.

Ford stayed at his cottage and Carney stayed at the one next door which is one that Ford’s daughter owns. It’s actually a good set up security wise given that the Ontario Provincial Police have a good layout of the area and extended their knowledge to the RCMP for Carney’s visit.

Is Ford too close to Carney…

I’ve been hearing since I was a kid that Canadians want their elected officials to work together. Maybe that isn’t the case in our current polarized world, but I’m guessing for everyone who isn’t a hyper-partisan that this is still true.

So, I pushed Ford a bit in our chat to defend his closeness to Carney and his praise of the Liberal PM.

Ford said that “some right-wing radicals” might not like that he was working close with Carney, but too bad. I get the sentiment that Ford is trying to put forward, but I can guarantee that isn’t the answer his staff would have wanted him to give.

Whatever you think of Ford, or Carney, they have both been elected by voters and by definition need to work together to get things done. The alternative is that they fight and battle in public and nothing gets done for the country.

Maybe that makes some partisans on each side feel better, but meanwhile policy grinds to a halt, people lose their jobs and the country suffers.

If there is one guiding principle that I have, and maybe it’s due to my blue collar roots, it’s all about jobs. Do we have jobs? Do we have the right policies to ensure jobs? Do we have the right policies to encourage jobs?

Ford seems to be pushing in that direction, so I will give him that.

Canada is still screwing itself on a trade deal with Trump…

“We've made progress, but we have a lot of work in front of us,” those were the words of Dominic LeBlanc on Thursday after two days of meetings with American officials in Washington.

Why can’t Canada get a trade deal with the Americans?

It’s because we’re our own worst enemy.

That isn’t Canada bashing, it’s the truth. The Americans want a high level deal with us, they are willing to cut it anytime, but we are stuck in the weeds.

Mark Carney has put Canada’s Ambassador to the United States Kristen Hillman in charge or all negotiations. Like him, Hillman is a policy wonk, unlike him, she isn’t a dealmaker.

You don’t send in the accounting team to close a sales deal and that is what Carney has done by making Hillman the lead negotiator.

Hillman is an accomplished woman, she is smart, she can advise on a deal, but she is not a deal maker. She is a player put in the wrong position for the team and it is hurting us.

“We haven’t put anything on the table,” is what one Canadian familiar with the talks said of our position.

Why haven’t we put anything on the table? Because Hillman is being too cautious, acting like the bureaucrat/wonk that she is and not trying to make a deal.

This kind of negotiation needs a salesperson, a closer.

Send in LeBlanc on his own, or if he can’t get the job done, send in Doug Ford or Danielle Smith. In this kind of situation, you need a backslapping salesman to do the job.

Details can be worked out later, after all sides have agreed there should be a deal.

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Buckley, a life and a revolution…

I spent an hour on Thursday afternoon speaking with Sam Tanenhaus about his new biography about William F. Buckley Jr.

It was a great conversation and it will show up in the next month as an episode of the Full Comment Podcast. I could have chatted with Sam for hours, he’s a great conversationalist, imminently interesting and full of insight.

If you know who Buckley is, that’s great. If you don’t know, when the episode drops, we will walk you through it.

Buckley was at the centre of the American conservative movement for more than half a century and had an impact on Canada as well. He wrote the book God and Man at Yale, he was the founder of National Review, he helped place Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as candidate for the Republican Party.

He also had a few Canadian connections.

In fact, his own grandparents moved from Southern Ireland to Hamilton, Ontario before moving to Texas where the family made it rich. His wife Patricia was born into a wealthy and influential Vancouver family.

It’s a hefty book, a long book but worth reading this summer. Podcast coming soon.

Great Canadian books that have been or will be profiled soon on Full Comment.