ABOVE THE FOLD
BLUE REBOOT — Meet Project Ontario, the Tory spinoff group making noise on the right flank of DOUG FORD.
They say Ford’s PCs aren’t conservative enough — especially on the fiscal file (cue the “biggest-spending Premier ever” line). At the end of the month, they’re holding a gathering in Toronto with an expected 150 or so attendees, and are backed by a roster of notable politicos including GINNY ROTH, PETER COPELAND, ARIELLA KIMMEL, JOSH DEHAAS, BRIAN DIJKEMA, CHRIS SPOKE, SHAWN WHATLEY, TIM SARGENT, ADAM ZIVO — plus some who’d rather stay in the shadows for fear of ticking off the ruling party. (JAMIL JIVANI, who isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with his former bosses in the PC government, is the latest to RSVP.)
Spokesperson MATT SPOKE tells me the PCs are already working behind the scenes to push back against them, while Ford has publicly brushed them off as a “right-wing radical group that wants to go after me, probably.”
But Project Ontario insists this isn’t a mutiny à…