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Asked by a reporter whether Poilievre, who lost his Ottawa-area riding of Carleton on April 28, should seek an Ontario seat instead of one in Alberta, the premier flashed a grin.

“Oh, buddy, I’m not going into that bear trap,” Ford said Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

That’s a reference to the tensions between the Progressive Conservative premier and the federal Tories, who have accused him of “sabotaging” their losing campaign by helping Carney’s Liberals.

Tory MP Jamil Jivani (Bowmanville-Oshawa North) has charged Ford was a “hype man” for the Grits during the recent federal election.

“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,” Jivani said last week.

The MP also took to  to post a doctored photo of Ford as a professional wrestler ripping off a yellow Ontario PC singlet to reveal a red Liberal T-shirt.

MP Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu’Appelle), who will serve as leader of the opposition until Poilievre wins a byelection expected this summer in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, has argued the CPC chief was “more popular in Ontario than Doug Ford is — just based on the votes.”

Ford’s provincial Tories received 2.1 million votes in the Feb. 27 Ontario election, winning 80 of the 124 seats at Queen’s Park in an election with 45 per cent turnout.

Poilievre’s party took 3.3 million votes and 52 of the 122 federal seats in Ontario, well behind Carney’s Liberals’ tally of 3.7 million votes and 70 seats in an election where 69 per cent of Ontarians cast ballots.

CBC’s Kate McKenna reported Wednesday that Poilievre is trying to arrange a conversation with Ford.

“I think he’s asked everyone across the country for a meeting,” said the premier.

“I have no problem with that. I’d be more than happy to talk to anyone and work with anyone … that’s just what we do,” he said.

Seven weeks ago, the Star revealed Poilievre made his first ever call to Ford on March 17 despite being federal leader for two and a half years.

There is no love lost between the two Conservative parties.

Last week, Ford had reminded reporters the federal Tories went out of their way to not help him in February.

“Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election. 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. Isn’t that ironic?”

Indeed, the Star reported last week that Poilievre’s office even ordered Tory MPs not to publicly congratulate the PCs on their victory — even though many share the same campaign volunteers in their ridings.

During the federal campaign, Ford had questioned Poilievre for not employing his strategy of making the election a referendum on U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada.

“Sometimes the truth hurts,” the premier said three weeks ago when asked about his political czar Kory Teneycke’s comments that the CPC was guilty of “campaign malpractice” for not using Trump as the ballot question as Carney’s Liberals did.