PM takes meeting with Tory but continues to snub Wynne

It has been more than a year since Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Premier Kathleen Wynne, but he made time to meet with new Mayor John Tory on Thursday.

Harper took the meeting at Pearson airport after a day of events in Mississauga.

Tory and Harper discussed traffic and transit issues, which have been a hallmark of the mayor’s early days in office.

The two also touched on jobs, the economy and housing, according to messages from Tory’s Twitter account.

The mayor called the first official meeting “positive.”

Tory said Friday that it’s important for him to keep an “excellent relationship” with Ontario’s government, the premier and her ministers.

“You take these political relationships one step at a time and one day at a time,” said Tory.

“I’ve got my job to do and I’ll be trying to use in a productive way the relationships I have and to hopefully make the partnerships between all three governments work better.”

In the meantime, Wynne had requested to meet with Harper in a letter dated Dec. 11, reminding the prime minister it had been more than a year since the two leaders had a face-to-face meeting.

“That is too long a time between meetings of the prime minister and the premier of Canada’s largest province, whose relationship should be one of collaboration, not confrontation,” Wynne wrote.

Harper and Wynne have publicly disagreed over pension plans, infrastructure and transit.

 

 

 

 

Harper recently responded to a similar letter from Wynne suggesting she meet with his cabinet ministers if she had any particular issues to discuss.

Wynne called ministerial co-operation “vital,” but added “it is no substitute for leadership and collaboration at the top.”

With files from The Canadian Press