After enduring weeks as Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s whipping boy during the federal election campaign, Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford is hoping they can hug it out.

Striking a conciliatory tone, Ford pledged to work with his political foe the day after an election that saw Trudeau uses the premier’s record to batter Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

The Ford fixation helped re-elect dozens of Liberals in Ontario, where the party won 79 of Ontario’s 121 seats and salvaged a minority Liberal government.

“I want to congratulate the prime minister on his re-election,” the premier said Tuesday at the Ontario Provincial Police Association meeting at Blue Mountain, an event closed to the media.

“Our government hopes the federal government will join us in making life easier and more affordable for Ontarians and Canadians alike.”

Privately, Ontario Tories concede the federal results were a setback for Ford.

“We lost Ontario by eight points and we’re getting killed with women (voters). This is a very worrying trend for Doug Ford,” said one senior party insider, who spoke confidentially in order to relay private deliberations.

Ford, who spoke to Trudeau by phone over the lunch hour, said he was “encouraged by the prime minister’s commitment on the campaign trail to fund the federal government’s share of the all-new Ontario Line subway project.”

That’s the proposed $11-billion, 15.5-km TTC line that Ford hopes will open in 2027 and run from the Ontario Science Centre in Don Mills to the Exhibition GO station in Liberty Village.

While Toronto Mayor John Tory supports the line, city council has yet to give its approval.

“Ontarians need and expect our governments to work with our municipal partners to build new and needed hospital infrastructure, create long-term care beds for our aging population, address gridlock and congestion on our roads and to build affordable housing for young people and families,” added Ford.

The premier did not mention the Liberals’ carbon-pricing scheme, which he opposes.

Despite budgeting $30 million to fight the climate-change measure — including an ad blitz, a court challenge and controversial gas-pump stickers — he indicated in August he would respect the will of voters if they endorsed the levy.

That course seemed less clear in a statement from his office later Tuesday.

“As we evaluate the results of the federal election, as the premier said previously, we will continue to discuss our government’s efforts to fight the federal carbon tax,” the statement added.

“We hope the federal government will work with us to ensure we are tackling important issues like climate change with real and effective solutions, while making sure our province is a place people and businesses can continue to prosper.”

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs is now reassessing his Tory government’s opposition to the federal carbon tax after the Liberals won six of 10 ridings there, and is considering a provincial version of the levy.

“People have voted for a carbon tax,” Higgs said Tuesday, calling the election results “clear.”

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford needs to “make good” on his August comments.

“He should drop the campaign to sabotage climate solutions and start showing Ontarians that he actually understand the urgency of the climate crisis,” Schreiner said.

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Liberal candidates credited Ford’s budget cuts and controversial policies, which they said were not well-received at the doors, for their success.

On CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, Tory MP Erin O’Toole (Durham) conceded Trudeau was successful in blurring the lines between federal and provincial politics in order to tar Scheer with Ford’s record.

O’Toole told host Matt Galloway there was some confusion at the doorsteps over the Conservative and Progressive Conservative parties.

In Regina, Scheer castigated Trudeau for “personally attacking and demonizing the premier of Ontario” throughout the campaign.

But the Tory leader did not explain why he distanced himself from Ford, only mentioning his name three times publicly.

While some Ford loyalists said Scheer should have used him on the campaign trail, other Tories said that would have been unwise.

“That would have been insane. We would have lost even more seats than we did,” said a federal Tory official.

Scheer’s party was spooked by polls showing Ford is personally unpopular.

Last month’s Campaign Research tracking survey last month found Ford has a 25 per cent approval rating and a 63 per cent disapproval rating for an overall rating of minus 38 per cent.

Ford delayed the return of the Ontario legislature from Sept. 9 until next Monday as a favour to Scheer and remained out of the spotlight the entire campaign.

But Trudeau repeatedly invoked Ford’s name on the hustings — mentioning him 14 times at one news conference in Hamilton — to frighten voters away from Scheer.

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

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1

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