BELL: Doug Ford warns Carney — Ontario premier can be an 800-pound gorilla

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It’s not the first time Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talked this way.

He’s done it before.

He’s done at times when he wants to make clear what he will do if push comes to shove.

What if Prime Minister Mark Carney ends up being more talk than walk?

What if Alberta and others get the short end of the Liberal stick again and the anger does not go away?

Premier Ford is speaking one-on-one with your scribbler.

“I don’t blame them for being angry,” says Ford, of Albertans.

“They’re 100 per cent right in not being listened to. They were ignored and treated terribly for 10 years. Those days are done.

“Let’s give an opportunity to the federal government right now. But I will be the first, I’ll be all over them like an 800-pound gorilla if they don’t want to work with us. I won’t make any bones about it and they know it.”

Now let’s be clear.

Ford thinks Prime Minister Mark Carney is a whole lot better than former prime minister Justin Trudeau. The Ontario premier says he will work with anyone, no matter the political stripe.

But he warns, Carney has to deliver. The Ontario premier says he has been very blunt with the prime minister.

“He’s a small guy and I told him: I’ll be on you like an 800-pound gorilla.

“But, you know something, the difference between Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau never ran a business. I don’t know if he was employed.”

Ford runs through Carney’s business experience.

“This guy is a smart, bright business person. That’s why I have confidence.”

Have to ask about a steady stream of emails to this scribbler from southern Ontario readers.

There are some in Ontario, how many is hard to tell, who say Alberta is whining. Alberta should shut up.

Ford does not agree.

“It is absolutely critical Alberta is on the team. They bring opportunities, wealth, jobs right to Ontarians. We have to support Alberta. We have to be united.”

At a meeting with newshounds Monday morning, Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sign a deal.

On pipelines going west and east, on rail lines and ports, on transporting oil and gas and critical minerals the two premiers are singing from the same songsheet.

Bury the last 10 years of the Liberals under Trudeau. Canada has to stop sabotaging its own economy. That’s the chorus.

“It’s time to end excuses. It’s time to start building and we need to start building now,” says Ford.

He tells the story of how an Indigenous chief told him how Canada could be like Saudi Arabia.

“I almost jumped over the table and hugged the guy,” says Ford, who says what is on his mind in a political world where thin gruel is often the special of the day.

Ford, like Premier Smith, gets pumped up talking about getting Canadian goods to the rest of the world.

Both premiers loathe laws and regulations standing in the way of getting the economy firing on all cylinders, including the oil and gas business.

When Ford mentions the tanker ban off the B.C. coast he says it’s the craziest thing he’s heard.

And do not get him started on Ottawa pushing new electric vehicles on Canadians over the next 10 years.

Ford talks about “great Alberta oil” and critical minerals from Ontario.

The Ontario premier says Ottawa “has to start showing respect to the good folks in the West, especially Saskatchewan and Alberta.”

Every part of Canada must be respected.

Ford is really irritated over the fact Ontario depends on a pipeline going through the U.S.

“We have the governor of Michigan constantly threatening to close down the pipeline. Do you know what a disaster that would create in Ontario?”

He says prices would go through the roof, Toronto Pearson Airport would shut down.

“I’m tired of relying on the United States. The days of relying on the United States, 100 per cent, they’re done, they’re gone.”

Alberta’s Premier Smith says politicians, such as Carney, visiting during the Calgary Stampede are hearing the facts without any sugar coating.

The oilpatch is frustrated and though we hear it is very likely a pipeline will be on the list of projects getting fast-tracked for approval we are not there yet.

“There will be a moment where the rubber meets the road. You can only talk the talk for so long,” says Smith.

The premier is looking for the big news in the fall.

Ford is giving Carney the benefit of the doubt.

“I have all the confidence he’s going to listen to the premiers and straighten out the federal government once and for all.”

And if not?

Well, there is that 800-pound gorilla.

rbell@postmedia.com