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“He’s tough as nails, but he’s the best campaign manager in the country,” Ford said Monday of Teneycke, who has accused Poilievre’s team of “campaign malpractice” for “blowing” a huge poll lead.

“And to be very frank, if Kory was running that campaign, I don’t think Mr. Poilievre would be in the position he is in right now,” the Progressive Conservative premier said at Queen’s Park.

“But there’s still a lot of time left. We still have the debates. At the end of the day, people will decide which way they want this country to move forward, but sometimes the truth hurts,” said Ford.

Heading into a crucial week in the campaign for the April 28 election, with leaders’ debates Wednesday and Thursday in French and English, Carney’s Liberals were at 43.6 per cent support.

That suggests the Liberals would win a majority with 183 seats in the 343-member House of Commons.

Poilievre’s Tories were at 40.9 per cent support, which translates into 130 seats.

Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats were at 7.2 per cent and 10 seats while Yves-François Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois was at 5.1 per cent and 19 seats.

The Greens of co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault were at 1.5 per cent and two seats and Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada was at one per cent and would continue to be shut out of the Commons.

“We’re seeing consistent levels of support for the Liberals in Ontario,” said Clifton van der Linden, a McMaster University political science professor and the CEO of Vox Pop Labs, the independent research organization that developed the Signal, which crunches publicly available polling data in a supercomputer.

“At this point in a campaign, it is common for people to start to lock in their vote and for undecideds to come forward and make a decision as to how they’re going to vote,” said van der Linden.

“But there could be a standout performance in a debate that really does shift public opinion.”

In Ontario — cornerstone of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s victories in 2015, 2019 and 2021 — the Liberals were at 49.5 per cent and poised to take 80 of the 122 seats up for grabs.

The Tories trailed with 40.6 per cent and 39 seats while the NDP was at 7.1 per cent and two seats and the Greens were at 1.4 per cent and one seat.

On , Nick Kouvalis — along with Teneycke, a key architect of the Ontario premier’s three majority election wins — noted that “for months/years, Pierre did not reach out to Ford.”

Indeed, the Star revealed the first time Poilievre ever called the Tory premier was on March 17, less than a month ago and only days before Carney called the federal election.

“During Ford’s election in February … Pierre and the CPC held a rally on the day advanced polls began — pulling Ford’s candidates and campaign workers away from that important work,” wrote Kouvalis, principal of Campaign Research, which does the provincial Tories’ polling.

“Many people in the CPC universe — most senior people — have worked tirelessly to damage Ford over a long period of time but especially during his election,” he added without mentioning names.

“Again, I hope Pierre and the CPC find a way to win this election. There will be much more to say about this ridiculous situation we find ourselves in and how we got here — after the next two weeks.”

For context, on Jan. 1, days before Trudeau announced his resignation, the Signal had the Tories at 46.9 per cent support, the NDP at 18.7 per cent, the Liberals at 18.6 per cent, the BQ at 9.7 per cent and the Greens at 2.7 per cent.

At Parliament’s dissolution, the Liberals held 152 seats, the Tories 120, the Bloc 33, the NDP 24 and the Greens two. There were three Independents and four vacancies in the 338-seat Commons, which is being expanded by five ridings due to population increases.