'I absolutely love you': Doug Ford promises barbecue to thank P.E.I. for COVID-19 kits

Islanders may be exchanging face masks for bibs when the COVID-19 pandemic finally comes to an end.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised to host "the best Fordfest barbecue that P.E.I. has ever seen" to thank the province for sending 2,000 COVID-19 kits which equals 8,000 tests to Ontario.

"This is a province with 157,000 people helping a province of 14.5 million people," Ford said Tuesday at a news conference in Toronto.

"I just want to tell the people from P.E.I., I absolutely love you folks."

Ford also thanked P.E.I. and Premier Dennis King for sending a tractor-trailer full of meals in the early days of the pandemic, an example of what he called working together in the "great Canadian spirit."

He said East Coasters are the type of people who "give their shirts off their backs" in a time of crisis.

"So Premier King and to all of the folks of P.E.I., I love you, I will be thereThis is amazing. I'm getting chills just talking about this."

Ontario announced it had 547 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing its total to 55,362. It has 5,469 confirmed active cases.

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