Scott Stinson: Mark Carney sings from the Doug Ford songbook as he announces $9B for Ontario industry

Just about every public pronouncement from Doug Ford in recent months has had a similar cadence.

He laments the rupture of the trade relationship with the United States. He mentions he still loves Americans, personally. Then he talks about the efforts his Ontario government is making to combat those trade-related problems. The premier will invariably list off industries that are important to the province’s economic growth like he is speaking of proud children.

Ring of Fire, the older one with all the potential in the world. Auto Sector, the reliable middle one who is going through a bit of a tough time now. And Small Nuclear Reactor, the precocious youngster that is doing amazing things at her age.

Throw in a few shoutouts to cabinet ministers, sprinkle “Protect Ontario” in there a couple of times and call it a day. You can set your watch to it.

So it was striking to see Mark Carney, in Ottawa on Wednesday, give pretty much the same speech as Ford stood beside him. You half-expected to see the Ontario premier quietly mouthing along as the prime minister spoke.

Carney, in announcing a multi-billion-dollar joint investment between the federal and provincial governments in three Ontario industries, with the stated goal of protecting them from tariff shocks, reeled off his own list of favoured projects.

Mines in northern Ontario. A new deal to produce military vehicles at a plant near London. A rail-car factory in Thunder Bay. And those small nuclear reactors about which Ford is so proud.

The prime minister even mentioned joint investments in housing that have reduced the cost of new homes. “I’ve seen the ads,” he said to Ford, a light jest toward a series of television spots that promote Ontario’s housing plan. (Carney also lamented the lack of a government of Canada logo on the ads, before admitting, again in jest, that he would have to buy his own ads.)

About the only spot of difference between the two leaders was in the ultimate price tag of the rescue package they were announcing. Carney called it a $9-billion investment in steel, autos and the Ring of Fire. Ford, speaking from prepared remarks after the prime minister, called it $8.7-billion. Even here, using the official numbers, he was a good ally, adding off-the-cuff that it was probably closer to $9-billion once you included the extras. Fees and such. Carney didn’t seem to mind that Ford’s speech had outed his people as having rounded up their numbers.

Even when the announcement turned into a press conference, there was little daylight to be found between the responses of the Conservative first minister and his Liberal counterpart in Ottawa.

Asked about the ongoing skirmish over planned job losses at Stelco in Hamilton and the lack of legal action from the federal government so far against the company’s American owners, Ford said his government was happy to follow Ottawa’s lead on the matter. This from the same premier who once theatrically poured out a bottle of Crown Royal when the liquor’s producers planned to shutter one of their Ontario bottling facilities.

When Ford was asked if he disagreed with Carney’s recent suggestions that immigration targets would likely be revised upward, he said that he’s “never in disagreement with the federal government.” This, at least, caused Carney to crack a slight smile.

Was it a surprise to see Carney and Ford hit it off so smashingly? Well, no. They have been largely copacetic since Carney came to office, give or take one Toronto island airport. But it remains notable because, as Ford prepares to finally return to the Ontario legislature after a more than four-month break, his relationship with Carney remains his greatest asset. (It has also buried the occasional rumour that Ford might be considering a switch to federal politics. How in the world could he run against a guy that he cannot seem to stop praising?)

Ford has rarely been personally popular with voters, and his PCs have repeatedly capitalized on the split to his political left between the NDP and the Liberals. But riding shotgun to Carney, who still enjoys near-historic levels of popularity thanks to his main role as Guy Who Donald Trump Calls Nasty, is bound to do Ford wonders. His opponents at Queen’s Park have, for example, called on Ford to act more urgently toward Stelco, but he can just point in the prime minister’s direction and voters, at least today, will nod approvingly.

As much as it might seem like the premier only has one song in his book, any chance that his message about protecting the economy and growing critical industries will grow stale is lessened when Carney shows up and says the exact same things.

The only disparity between the two these days is that sometimes Carney does his speaking in French.