The Conservatives didn’t wait long before hurling Premier-designate Doug Ford’s anti-carbon tax stance at the federal Liberals.

A succession of Conservative questions in the first question period after the election alleged that Ontarians have rejected the carbon tax — and called on the government to follow suit.

“The people have voted against the prime minister’s carbon tax,” Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said on Friday.

“Will the prime minister accept the verdict of the people and cancel his carbon tax plan to raise the price of everything?”

Ford, who won a majority in the Ontario provincial election Thursday night, ran on platform that included a promise to end Ontario’s cap-and-trade carbon pricing system — which he repeatedly referred to as a carbon tax. The federal Conservatives have been urging the federal government to ditch its carbon tax plan for some time — and they were emboldened on Friday by what they’re referring to a carbon tax “verdict” rendered by the people of Ontario.

Poilievre dedicated his first three questions on the carbon tax. Conservative MP Gérard Deltell then took over, asking the same questions in French. After a few NDP questions, the Conservatives returned to the topic.

Liberal MP and the environment minister’s parliamentary secretary Jonathan Wilkinson defended the government’s policy.

“I certainly wish, Mr. Speaker, that for the sake of our children and grandchildren, the Conservatives were not making climate change a partisan argument,” Wilkinson said. “Canadians know that climate change is real and they expect us to take strong action.”

Longtime Liberal MP John McKay said he expected Ford’s victory would put Trudeau’s government on a “collision course” with the province in the battle over climate change.

Though he said the federal government would exercise its jurisdiction and impose a carbon tax on Ontario, regardless of any actions taken by Ford’s government.

Under the federal legislation, all provinces have until the end of the year to enact carbon pricing plans. If they don’t meet federal standards, a national price will be imposed on them. Saskatchewan has already threatened to sue if the federal government tries to impose a price on carbon.

The carbon tax wasn’t the only Ontario election issue that the Conservatives lobbed at the Liberals. After Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s party was crushed last night — and appears to have lost party status — the Tories were dead set on sticking the Wynne brand to the federal Liberals with a federal election just over a year away.

“Kathleen Wynne was this prime minister’s Liberal soul mate. They agreed on absolutely everything,” Poilievre said in the Commons. In his next question, he used Wynne’s name four times.

Elly Alboim of Earnscliffe Strategy Group, who watched the results roll in alongside Wynne on Thursday, isn’t convinced that the Tory efforts will work.

“I think overall people understand the different levels of government, different brands, there are different leaders…so each one is essentially a choice of available options and circumstance,” he said.

“The NDP just lost power in Manitoba. It didn’t stop them from winning power in BC.”

Nik Nanos of Nanos Research, however, said the federal Liberals have been dipping in the polls.

“We’ve seen, in our federal weekly tracking numbers … the federal Liberal numbers start to slide, coincidentally, during the Ontario provincial election, coincidentally, in the province of Ontario. So it’s going to be interesting to see whether that slide is a short-term phenomenon or a longer term phenomenon,” Nanos said.

“We should not think that Ontario or Canada is not susceptible to some of these populist movements that tap into anxiety. Because we are susceptible, and maybe that’s going to be the other key lesson from this, is that some might think that Canada is immune, but we are not immune,” Nanos added.

With files from The Canadian Press

Follow @atRachelGilmore