EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Doug Ford's main electoral opponents are questioning his provincial government's move to pay an American lobbying firm to help it promote Ontario's interests in the U.S. in the months surrounding the presidential election.
Under Ford's Progressive Conservatives last summer, the province signed a deal to pay Capitol Counsel up to $1.3 million for government relations and public affairs services in Washington, D.C., where the firm is based. Legally required filings made by the company explain it was hired by the Ontario government from Aug. 1, 2024, until July 31, 2025, to help craft and deliver a strategy to engage key American lawmakers before and after the U.S. elections.
More recently, about four weeks ago, Capitol Counsel and Rubicon Strategy, the Ontario-based lobbying firm run by Kory Teneycke — the PC Party's campaign manager and one of Ford's most trusted advisers — announced they'd formed "an exclusive partnership to address the growing complexities of cross-border trade and government relations."
Ontario's Liberals and New Democrats are now each criticizing the Capitol Counsel contract as another example of Ford putting "insiders first."
"The strategic ties that are created with Rubicon and Kory Teneycke, it is so like Doug Ford to take care of his rich friends and rich insiders first, rather than the people of Ontario to provide the very basics for people like the health care they need," Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said on Sunday.
"Ford spent taxpayer dollars on giving a sweetheart deal to an American company associated with his campaign manager and what good did that do?" the Ontario NDP said in a statement. "This is yet another bad deal from a premier who puts his insiders first."
In response to questions from The Trillium, Ivana Yelich, spokesperson for the PC Party, said Teneycke has taken a leave of absence from Rubicon to manage the Progressive Conservatives' re-election campaign and has "recused himself from any work related to Capitol Counsel."
According to Patrick Harris, a managing partner of Rubicon, it and Capitol Counsel do not share financial stakes in one another's businesses. Their partnership, Harris wrote in an email, "was formed in January of 2025 as the likelihood of a trade dispute between Canada and the U.S.A. increased ... (and) helps each company have a better understanding of the current trade issues."
Yelich said Capitol Counsel continues to support the Ontario government "by facilitating meetings with U.S. lawmakers and offering insights and intelligence on the U.S. administration."
Teneycke's involvement in Conservative politics in Canada goes back decades. He launched Rubicon shortly after helping Ford win the first of his two majority mandates in 2018. Over the years Ford has been in power, Teneycke has, while external to the government, been a trusted informal adviser to the premier, according to numerous PC sources.
Rubicon has also become known as one of the top firms in the province for stakeholders keen to grab the Ford government's attention.
While Ford and his campaign travelled through the Niagara Region on Jan. 31, one of the first days of the current election campaign, he made at least three stops at businesses that Rubicon lobbies for, including Walker Industries, Ontario Shipyards (which was formerly known as Heddle Shipyards), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – Construction Council of Ontario (IBEW CCO). IBEW CCO and Ontario Shipyards have received millions of dollars in provincial grants in the last year, according to Rubicon lobbyists' filings to the provincial registry.
Ford initiated an early election last week, saying — despite his PCs already controlling a majority of seats in the Ontario legislature — that he needs a new mandate from Ontarians to potentially spend tens of billions of tax dollars responding to threats U.S. President Donald Trump poses to the province's economy. His opponents, including Crombie and NDP Leader Marit Stiles, have each criticized Ford's justification, calling the election unnecessary.
On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Canada — excluding energy imports, which will face 10 per cent tariffs — to take effect on Tuesday. However, on Monday afternoon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an agreement was reached to pause the tariffs. In response, Ford announced that Ontario's retaliatory measures would also be paused. Read more here.
Editor's note: This story was updated to include the news of the tariff pause.