Doug Ford has said he would have voted for Donald Trump if he could, but he insists he doesn’t “give two hoots” about the polarizing U.S. president.

The rookie Progressive Conservative leader told Toronto Life in November 2016 that he would have cast a ballot for the mercurial New York businessman — “not a doubt in my mind” — but he bristled Friday at being compared to Trump.

In an interview with CJBQ Radio’s Lorne Brooker in Belleville, he rejected any parallels to the bombastic president with a penchant for populist rallies and simplistic sloganeering.

“Lorne, I can tell you I’ve talked to tens of thousands of people and not one person has ever come up and said ‘you’re like Donald Trump,’” said Ford.

“Again, it’s the media is playing this up. I don’t give two hoots about Donald Trump. I care about the people of Ontario. I care about turning this province around and putting money back into the taxpayers’ pockets instead of the government’s,” he said.

Recalling his late brother, Rob — a controversial former Toronto mayor seen by many as a proto-Trump — Ford noted “we were around a lot longer than Donald Trump.”

“And as much as the media’s trying to play on this, people realize the Fords have been in public service for 25 years helping people and ... there’s not even a comparison.”

Ford was also asked about his decision to hit the hustings without a media bus following his campaign, stressing he will “be accessible to the media every single day” during the writ period that starts May 9.

“The only person concerned about the media not being on the bus are the media,” he told Brooker.

With Ford leading the Liberals in every public-opinion poll, his campaign team would prefer to focus on hosting rallies for supporters, like one Friday night in Peterborough.

But the governing party charges that the new leader fears constant press scrutiny.

Economic Development Steven Del Duca emphasized that “you can’t be the peek-a-boo premier.”

“You actually have to stand up and say this is what I believe in. So for us it’s about care, not cuts. It’s about courage, not cowardice,” Del Duca told reporters at the Steam Whistle brewery in Toronto.

“And I think the people of Ontario deserve more than someone who thinks they can play hide and seek all the way to the premier’s chair,” he said.

“In a few weeks when the campaign starts the choice for the people of Ontario couldn’t be more stark. Our budget that we recently announced in the Legislature very clearly puts us on the side of making sure that we’re caring for the people of this province.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne, for her part, said Ford would have to come clean with voters with details about his plan to cut 4 per cent in spending .

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“Right now, what we see is that there would be cuts across government and so that is in sharp contrast to what we’re saying, which is that people need more support, there needs to be investment in care,” Wynne said in London.

“Again, whether it’s more supports for healthcare, home care and hospitals are part of that of course, whether it’s free childcare for preschool kids, whether it’s free prescription medication for kids but also for seniors. Those are the things that people tell us that they need.”

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