Premier Doug Ford should focus on his day job instead of daydreaming about being prime minister, says federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

LeBlanc expressed astonishment Thursday at Queen’s Park that “Mr. Ford hasn’t put to bed the idea that he’s got national ambitions.”

“You get a four-year job and you’re 10 per cent into it and you’re already looking to upgrade to go somewhere else? I can’t imagine that that’s very constructive,” said the federal minister, a long-time friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Ford, who led the Progressive Conservatives to power in the June 7 election just three months after becoming provincial party leader, has privately mused to associates about taking his act nationally after the 2019 federal election.

Since bringing some star power to the federal Conservatives’ August convention in Halifax, where he was a bigger draw for delegates’ selfies than Tory Leader Andrew Scheer, he has campaigned in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

“If I was worried about a problem with my children’s education in a public school in Ontario or if I was on a waiting list for a hospital, I might find it more useful to see the premier here, worrying about those issues than campaigning for Mr. Scheer in Alberta,” said LeBlanc.

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The premier has also been concentrating his attacks on Trudeau, criticizing the Liberal prime minister for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the forthcoming federal carbon-pricing plan, and the legalization of cannabis.

“When it comes to defending his plans for cannabis Justin Trudeau has been a no-show. When it comes to defending his cannabis plan he might as well be in the witness protection program,” Ford thundered in a speech to police officers Tuesday.

Pointing out Trudeau’s high media profile, LeBlanc lampooned the premier for the shot.

“If our prime minister’s in the ‘witness protection program’ Mr. Ford has, I think, dramatically misunderstood what that program was designed to achieve,” the minister said.

With a federal election next year, the federal Liberals see Ford, the best-known and most powerful Tory in the country, as a far more useful foil than the low-key Scheer.

The provincial government’s aggressive opposition to Ottawa’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — including a $35 million legal challenge — will also be a headline-grabbing point of contrast in coming months.

LeBlanc pounced on Ford’s Calgary rally two weeks ago with Alberta United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, where they spoke against the federal carbon-pricing plan.

“He certainly was campaigning with the Conservative leader in Alberta and telling people why pollution should be free again. We think that there should be a cost to pollution. We think polluters should pay,” said the minister.

“We won’t shy away from correcting things that the Ford government is saying that we think are inaccurate,” added LeBlanc, who was at Queen’s Park to meet with Ontario’s Economic Development and Trade Minister Jim Wilson.

Ford’s complaints about the trade deal also rankled LeBlanc, who suggested there is some revisionism at play.

“I obviously was disappointed that the Ford government flip-flopped from their ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ support of the Canada-first position and now have a list of concerns that they didn’t seem to have in the hours and days before the deal was signed — and they were fully briefed on that,” he said.

Last week, Ford said Ottawa “used Ontario jobs as a bargaining chip and Justin Trudeau is out there taking a victory lap without giving honest answers about … what he will do for the people he’s left behind.”

“The new deal leaves too many Ontario families and businesses out in the cold. The Trudeau Liberals left out Ontario farmers, they left out Ontario’s steelworkers and aluminum workers,” the premier said Oct. 9.

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Simon Jefferies, Ford’s press secretary, said Ford’s travels are about helping Ontarians, not politicking.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax will cost Ontario families $648 a year. Premier Ford will do everything in his capacity to stop this tax from being rammed down the throats of Ontario families and job creators,” said Jefferies.

“This includes meeting with and working with like-minded politicians across the country, including Jason Kenney and (Saskatchewan Premier) Scott Moe.”

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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