Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford is making an unusual campaign stop in Washington D.C. Tuesday, as Bonnie Crombie, Marit Stiles and Mike Schreiner continue on the hustings in Ontario.<\/p>\n
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Ford headed south to Washington D.C. for meetings in the United States capital on Tuesday, a move that has been criticized by his opponents for blurring the lines between premier and party leader.<\/p>\n
The PC campaign has said the decision to fly to Washington D.C. comes because the Council of the Federation, which represents Canada\u2019s 13 premiers, has events planned in the U.S. for Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Ford has chosen to fly a day earlier to the United States on a trip which he has said will be paid for by campaign finances and not the Ontario government.<\/p>\n
The financing of the trip had made it unclear to what extent Ford is appearing as the premier of Ontario or PC leader.<\/p>\n
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Ford remains premier of a caretaker government even after the legislature is dissolved for an election campaign but convention dictates<\/a> he should not take part in any events which could be considered to use that role to his own political advantage.<\/p>\n Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The D.C. trip has already prompted a complaint from the Ontario Liberals, alleging the PC leader could be using government resources to campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ontario Liberal candidate John Fraser wrote a series of complaints to watchdogs and officials, claiming the D.C. trip could \u201cwould harm trust in our public institutions, and violate a basic principle of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t![\"Get](\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\")
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