Ontario Premier Doug Ford is sticking up for his campaign manager, who has been a vocal critic of how Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has run his election campaign.
Kory Teneycke, who recently managed Ford's winning Progressive Conservative campaign, has been criticizing the Poilievre campaign for being too Trump-like at a time when voters are motivated by opposition to the U.S. president and his economic aggression against Canada.
Speaking to reporters at Queen's Park, Ford was asked about Teneycke's criticism of fellow Conservatives.
Teneycke is "tough as nails" and "the best campaign manager in the country," Ford replied.
"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," said Ford. "But there's still a lot of time left — we still have debates. At the end of the day, the people will decide which way you want this country to move forward — but sometimes the truth hurts."
Teneycke runs the government-relations firm Rubicon Strategy and managed Ford's three winning campaigns. He's also a commentator on politics on the Curse of Politics podcast, where he replaced Jenni Byrne as the Conservative voice. Byrne is running Poilievre's campaign.
Teneycke has used that platform, and others, to criticize the Conservative campaign, which entered 2025 with a 25-point lead in the polls over the Liberals and now trails by about five.
“I feel like I'm ... shouting at the clouds on this,” said Teneycke on last week's episode of the Curse of Politics podcast. “Being with Trump, and being viewed as Trump, and channelling Trump is how to lose this election — and the campaign, and Poilievre, can't stop doing it. They just can't stop, won't stop. That's the problem.”
Teneycke made headlines earlier in the election period for warning that the Conservative campaign was “going to get obliterated” because Poilievre was looking and sounding too much like Trump.
He defended those comments on the recent podcast, saying the campaign “is going to be studied for decades as the biggest f—ing disaster, in terms of having lost a massive lead in ways that are so obvious with so much information that says ‘You're f—ing it up.”
Teneycke also compared Poilievre’s rallies to “a f—ing carnival” and suggested people there would join in Trump rally chants like “stop the steal” and “lock them up.”
He also said Poilievre’s interaction with Globe and Mail’s Laura Stone, in which the politician quizzed the reporter on the size of the crowd at his recent rally, was “in the Trumpiest fashion possible” and “f—ing gross.”
“And he is losing women and losing women massively. And if you want to know why, go and watch that clip,” said Teneycke.
Ford has largely stayed out of the federal campaign but has said complementary things about Liberal Leader Mark Carney, calling him an "extremely bright business person" who "gets it."
Asked if he'd allow his MPPs to campaign for their federal Conservative cousins, Ford suggested they'd be too busy and "are going to be absolutely swamped.” But MPPs have been seen on the federal trail, and Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney publicly endorsed Poilievre.
Ford's campaign was narrowly focused on tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump. Ford campaigned on the slogan "Protect Ontario" and spoke about tariffs at every campaign event.
