Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives are taking a massive gamble and embracing Mayor Rob Ford, not out of love — the two aren’t close — but because they have no choice.

The risks are huge. Ford’s popularity is sinking, according to polling data, as his hunt for “gravy” falters and his administration wobbles. Just as the provincial campaign takes off, Ford is wading into budget deliberations seemingly eager to inflict deep spending cuts despite a promise not to.

Nobody was more eager than the ruling Liberals — fearful, not long ago, of the Ford factor in the Oct. 6 provincial election — to see Ford and Hudak together at Friday evening’s “Ford Fest” barbecue.

Hudak told reporters after the more than hour-long meeting in Ford’s mother’s sprawling bungalow they talked about the mayor’s efforts to clean up the financial “mess” left by his predecessor, David Miller.

“Taxes went up and services went down and they have a significant deficit,” Hudak said.

He heaped praise on the Fords for putting aside their business interests to “stop the gravy train, to clean up city hall.”

Hudak was the last of the three party chiefs to meet with Ford, who is asking for, among other things, a hefty pledge of provincial dollars to help fill a potential “gap” in private-sector funding to get his $3.7 billion Sheppard subway line built.

Hudak was non-committal, promising only to consider “innovative” ways to help.

Ford did not ask the PC leader about his vow to halt the province taking back previously downloaded costs, something the Liberals said would cost Toronto $170 million per year.

“I believe the mayor and Tim will and can have a very good relationship,” said a senior Conservative strategist.

“Rob Ford won a strong plurality in Toronto and we’re hoping that we can do the same. It’s no secret we haven’t been strong in Toronto — we currently have no seats — and it’s hard to form a government without Toronto seats.”

Even a diminished Ford is still a force, especially in Etobicoke, Scarborough and the other inner suburbs. Hudak, whose own poll numbers have been slipping, has calculated that he can’t alienate Ford or his voters.

The strategist, speaking on background, dismissed Ford’s recent troubles, saying he “has raised a lot of pocketbook and affordability issues that really resonated,” while Premier Dalton McGuinty has “done nothing but raise taxes, drive people out of the province and the city is no better for it.”

Ford, who endorsed Prime Minister Stephen Harper just before the May 2 federal election that vaulted the Conservatives into Fortress Toronto, helping deliver a majority government, has said he isn’t sure if he’ll endorse a leader.

John Capobianco, a PC party activist who advised the Ford mayoral campaign after his candidate, Rocco Rossi, dropped out, doesn’t deny relations between the two camps have been strained.

The Conservative party infuriated Ford and his brother, Doug, last year by sending a cease-and-desist letter accusing the Fords of using the party’s voter list — an accusation they denied.

A widely held belief, that Hudak’s campaign will get access to the valuable database of hundreds of thousands of conservative-minded voters gleaned from Ford’s “telephone townhalls,” is false, sources say.

The voter list letter darkened already bad blood between Hudak’s campaign manager, Mark Spiro, and Ford’s campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, who was also the mayor’s chief of staff until February.

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Still, Capobianco says that, with the provincial prize at stake, differences can be overcome. The Liberals attack Ford at their own peril, he added.

“I think they’re underestimating the clout of Mayor Rob Ford,” he said.

“He was elected with a sweeping mandate for change at City Hall and he has done a phenomenal job of cutting spending and keeping taxes down.”

But the Star has learned of polling data showing Ford’s popularity steadily sinking from an almost 70 per cent approval rating after the Oct. 25 election to only 45 per cent in early August.

Nelson Wiseman, a veteran political scientist at the University of Toronto, also believes the Fords’ rock-star appeal has dimmed, scoffing at the mayor’s past threat to unleash his “Ford Nation” supporters to topple McGuinty.

“Ford Nation is now a little clam,” Wiseman said. “Sometimes it seems to be two people — Rob and his brother who, since the election, have come across like Abbott and Costello.

“I can see the Conservatives winning seats in the 416 but it won’t be because of Ford, it will be in spite of it.”

The Conservatives have some time to assess Ford’s fortunes and how warmly to greet an endorsement, if it comes.

The mayor loves to campaign but has to weigh completely poisoning relations with McGuinty in case the premier gets re-elected.

Ford also knows that several of his key council allies are Liberals. Most of his advisers are Tories but Earl Provost, Ford’s director of stakeholder and councillor relations, is a staunch Grit with signed photos on his office wall that include McGuinty and Michael Ignatieff.

Another Tory with ties to both Hudak and Ford wonders if it really matters who Rob Ford endorses.

“Everyone thinks Doug Ford is pretty much the mayor anyway and he’s going to be out there beating the drum for the Tories like nobody’s business.”

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