Pierre Poilievre is the leader of Canada's Conservative Party, having won its leadership in 2022. He is a career politician. His party's support is distributed inefficiently across constituencies, with Alberta serving as a stronghold in the way that California does for American Democrats.
Mr Poilievre is 46. He has had unprecedented success in wooing disaffected young and working-class Canadians. Elon Musk has showered him with praise and compared him to Donald Trump. In the April 2025 election the Conservatives slightly narrowed their deficit in Parliament, but Mr Poilievre fell short of forming a government. He lost the Ottawa riding he had held for two decades to a Liberal; 144 Conservative MPs were elected. The party's share of the vote rose to 8m, or 41%—its highest in nearly four decades—but it lost the popular vote by two percentage points, after winning it by one in 2021. His party made striking gains among immigrant and working-class voters, mirroring demographic trends that returned Donald Trump to the White House.
Fending off Donald Trump's threats was one of voters' top priorities, and by a margin of 46% to 28% voters preferred Mark Carney to handle the American president. Mr Poilievre's predilection for withering attacks on the media and his association with MAGA conservatism hurt him in this environment. Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke called his failure to repudiate the American president more forcefully "campaign malpractice". The Conservatives criticised the Liberals as soft on antisemitism and outperformed in heavily Jewish ridings.
Without a seat, Mr Poilievre could not continue as Canada's formal opposition leader. On August 18th he won a by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, Canada's second-safest Conservative riding in rural Alberta, with more than 80% of write-in ballots after a pliant fellow Conservative stood down. He faces a party leadership review in January 2026.
By early 2026 Mr Poilievre had lost three MPs to the Liberals. His populist slogans, aviator sunglasses and form-fitting T-shirts were gone, replaced by sober suits and sombre promises to work with the Liberals. His favourability ratings trailed Mark Carney's by 30 points.
Mr Poilievre has championed growth-orientated policies aimed at stimulating investment in energy and housing, some of which were adopted by the Liberal Party under Mr Carney. His personal brand, however, has been tilted towards fighting culture wars; the Conservatives have used the slogan "Make Canada great again".
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