TORONTO

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s light rail Gravy Train is on a collision course.

Councillor Doug Ford’s subway express is barrelling towards her.

Ford is serious about running provincially — and is calling for an early election in May.

He told me Wednesday he’s running provincially for the PCs in Etobicoke North — the riding his father Doug Ford Sr. once held for the Tories. The riding is presently held by Liberal Shafiq Qaadri.

Wynne has handed the Tories the perfect platform to make the breakthrough in 416 they’ve been desperately seeking since 2003.

And it’s a subway platform.

Ford vows to push for subways to the suburbs if he’s part of a Tory government — and he’d pay for it without using the kind of “revenue tools” Wynne is planning.

“The premier wants to arbitrarily increase taxes to the tune of $50 billion,” Ford told me in a phone interview. “My answer to that is why don’t we look internally? They have a $126-billion-a-year budget that’s bloating year after year after 10 years.”

Ford pointed out he and his brother Mayor Rob Ford have saved the city $1 billion — with a budget one-tenth that of the province. He says Wynne should do the same provincially.

“We (the city) are approximately $12 billion. We’ve saved the taxpayers over $1 billion in two-and-a-half years. Why can’t they find 2% efficiencies in the next year?” he asked.

He’d put the brakes on the provincial gravy train.

“We’ve stopped the gravy train in Toronto,” Ford said.

“There’s still a lot of waste in the City of Toronto, but we’re finding efficiencies.

“My question to the premier is very simple. If you can’t find 2% efficiencies on a bloated government like Ontario, then she shouldn’t be the premier,” he said.

The province is facing a $12-billion deficit and the Liberals have doubled the debt since they came into office. Last year, Moody’s downgraded the province’s credit rating and Standard and Poor’s put us on a “negative” watch — down from stable.

“Right now there’s no one screaming out for the GTA on subways. They’ve totally ignored Scarborough and Rob and I are the only one voicing our opinions,” Ford said. “Not one MPP in Scarborough is yelling and screaming for subways for their own residents. It’s shocking to us.”

Downtown elites would have you think we can’t afford subways to the ’burbs.

The trendy clique want to keep subways all for themselves.

You want to know how we pay for it?

Remember when the PST and GST were harmonized — and we got the Hated Sales Tax?

Look what happened to the gas tax.

We were paying 14.7% provincial gasoline tax. On top of that, we paid 5% GST.

When they were harmonized, we started paying an additional 8% in PST, on top of the 14.7% provincial gasoline tax and the GST.

We now pay three taxes on gas. That extra 8% is how the government should fund subways.

The Tories have nominated candidates in all but 10 of 107 ridings across the province.

In Toronto, only Etobicoke North and York West are vacant.

PC Party president Richard Ciano welcomed Ford’s candidacy.

“I’m very excited about my friend Doug’s decision to run for us in Etobicoke North. I know he’ll be a leading member of our excellent team. His decision further demonstrates the strength of our future caucus and cabinet,” Ciano said by e-mail.

Wynne told reporters she’s not planning an election in May.

“It’s our intention to govern,” Wynne said, adding she always welcomes people “throwing their hat in the ring.”

Wynne may think she’s seen the light at the end of a long dark tunnel of gas plant boondoggles and Ornge scandals.

She should think again.

That light she’s seen is Doug Ford’s subway express coming from the opposite direction.

You want gravy on that subway sandwich?