Trudeau throws shade at Ford and Scheer during Ottawa rally

In a meeting of every nominated Liberal candidate in Ottawa, Trudeau declared that “the middle-class can’t afford another Doug Ford.”

Instead of Trudeau mentioning and attacking Andrew Scheer by name, the Liberal party leader repeatedly highlighted cuts the Progressive Conservatives have made to public services in Ontario.

Trudeau’s speech today is evidence of the Liberals’ new tactic of linking Doug Ford, who is suffering from increasingly negative opinion polls in Ontario, to Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives.

This was especially overt when Trudeau stated that “Conservative politicians love to say they’re ‘for the people,’ but we all know what happens when they’re in office.”

In his speech, Trudeau asked the Liberal candidates and volunteers to make as many references to Ford’s austerity as they possibly could, whilst on the campaign trail.

“We’ve seen repeatedly just how far they’re willing to go to help the wealthiest few, how quickly they’ll make cuts to public health, cuts to municipalities, cuts to health care, cuts to childcare, cuts to education,” Trudeau said.

Under Doug Ford’s leadership, the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has introduced numerous contentious spending measures, intended to save money after the debt-fuelled Wynne era. These have included capping Ontario’s needs-based autism program to $20,000, as well as cutting Legal Aid Ontario by 30 percent.

A notable example of the Trudeau Liberals highlighting the Scheer and Ford’s connection came during the NBA final through a third-party attack ad, declaring “Andrew Scheer will never stand up to Ford.”

It is likely that Canadians will hear more of these messages with only three more months to go until the election.