Things are getting personal between Ottawa and Ontario

Over the past few days, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called for the defeat of the prime minister, while members of Trudeau’s cabinet have called out the Ontario government for peddling false facts and the “politics of cruelty.”

Trudeau and Ford must really be looking forward to the first ministers’ conference due to be held in the coming weeks — most likely in the first week of December. The awkward photos will be priceless.

While it’s more the rule than the exception to have opposing parties in power at Queen’s Park and on Parliament Hill, relations between the Ford and Trudeau governments appear to be particularly raw, and especially so this week.

On Tuesday, federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer visited Queen’s Park and was warmly greeted by the premier as the “next prime minister of Canada” — a development that would come, Ford said at a photo op in his office, after voters “get rid” of Trudeau in next year’s election.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard leaders talk like this. Former prime minister Stephen Harper was no big fan of Liberal premiers Dalton McGuinty or Kathleen Wynne and also called for their defeat — but those suggestions generally came at fundraisers or in off-hand remarks, not at official government podiums.

Meanwhile, federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen was accused once again this week of giving the back of the hand to his Ontario counterpart, Lisa MacLeod.

In an interview on Thursday night with CBC’s Power and Politics, Hussen said MacLeod was “engaged in fear mongering and using this issue to demonize people.” As for MacLeod’s claim that 40 per cent of Toronto shelter occupants are refugees, Hussen said: “The figures that are being thrown around are not based on facts.”

MacLeod responded on Twitter that Hussen was a “namecalling bully.” That charge also isn’t new — the two ministers have been sparring almost since the Ford government came to office last summer.

Trudeau’s labour minister, Patty Hajdu, was also plunging into the fray this week, announcing a wave of new worker protections very similar to the ones that have recently been rolled back by the Ford government.

Hajdu spoke out against what she called the “politics of cruelty” and the “devastating” spectacle of governments rolling back worker benefits.

Now, it should be noted that this wasn’t exactly Ottawa rushing in to serve as a backstop to Ford’s cuts — the measures announced by Hajdu apply only to federally regulated workers and most workers in Ontario are governed by provincial laws. As well, federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc told me last month that Ottawa could not act as a “court of appeal” on provincial matters, even if it does disagree with them.

But Hajdu’s announcement was clearly intended to draw some sharp, political distinctions between the two governments and help frame the Liberals’ platform for next year’s federal election. So was Trudeau’s announcement of the carbon tax rebate — right in Ford’s backyard of Etobicoke — a couple of weeks ago.

This harsh state of relations between Ontario and Ottawa tells us a lot about the larger picture of politics in Canada as we head into a federal election year. It’s the story of big global forces — Canada picking up on the polarized tone of debate south of the border, for sure — but also the small world of Canadian politics.

There is plenty of crosspollination between partisans in Queen’s Park and Ottawa at present. Trudeau’s government has been built around strong connections to Ontario Liberals. His two chief advisers, Gerald Butts and Katie Telford, are veterans of the old McGuinty government.

Ford’s new government, similarly, has been drawing on a raft of staff connections to the old Harper regime, including Jenni Byrne, who served as Harper’s campaign manager and deputy chief of staff, and is now installed in the premier’s office.

All politics is personal, as they say, but this migrating network of Liberals and Conservatives, who all know each other and who have fought campaigns against one another, make things ultra-personal in the Ontario-Ottawa relationship at present.

For politics-watchers, though, these federal-provincial skirmishes are like the trailer for the election movie coming next year. Want a sneak peek at the fall of 2019? Look no further than the battles we saw between the Ford and Trudeau governments this week — and the ones we’ll be seeing over the coming weeks too.