Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to supporters after the election was declared for the Liberal Party in Ottawa, on April 29.Amber Bracken/Reuters
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative MPs are meeting in Ottawa to sift the ashes of their failed attempt to unseat the Liberal government and begin charting next steps.
Over the past week, MPs and advisers have given Mr. Poilievre an earful about how the election campaign was run, including demands he cut ties with campaign manager Jenni Byrne, issues that are expected to be raised anew at Tuesday’s caucus meeting.
But unease persists around what, if any, changes he’s prepared to make in response.
“I need to learn and grow,” Mr. Poilievre said in a video posted late Monday afternoon on social media.
“Our team needs to expand, that will be my mission,” he said.
For the moment, there are no signs that Mr. Poilievre’s leadership is in jeopardy after he lost the election, and his seat.
He has not publicly acknowledged that he was defeated in Carleton – an Ottawa-area riding he had represented for 20 years – and Liberal MP-elect Bruce Fanjoy, who won the seat, had yet to hear from him as of late Monday.
But on the weekend, Mr. Poilievre did travel to the riding he hopes to represent next, Battle River-Crowfoot, an Alberta constituency that elected Conservative Damien Kurek with 82.8 per cent of the vote last week.
Mr. Kurek announced Friday that he’ll step down to allow Mr. Poilievre to run for the seat in a by-election.
While voting results are still being validated, the Conservatives appear poised to have won 143 seats and around 40 per cent of the popular vote, an increase from the past two elections.
Though Mr. Poilievre and others have framed that as a victory of sorts, a few months earlier they had a double-digit lead over the Liberals in public-opinion polls. The fact that this advantage evaporated so significantly remains a cause of concern.
Criticisms of the campaign include a perception that Mr. Poilievre didn’t respond forcefully enough to Canadians’ concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of annexation and the tariff war. Others have pointed to Mr. Poilievre’s tone and demeanour as a problem.
David Brazil, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in St. John’s East, told local news outlet VOCM that he heard about Mr. Poilievre at the door.
“I heard it thousands of times: ‘Mr. Brazil, I would love to vote for you, love what you did provincially, think you’d be a great member, but I can’t support your leader,’” he told the outlet.
There are also widespread concerns with the nitty-gritty of the campaign itself. These include how nominations were handled and how resources were or weren’t allocated, with particular ire directed at how Ms. Byrne ran the show.
Four Conservative sources told The Globe and Mail Monday there is significant tension around whether she can continue to play a leading role within the party. Many want Mr. Poilievre to publicly cut ties with her, but others argue that isn’t necessary and he ought to just reduce her role in day-to-day affairs.
The Globe is not identifying the four sources, who were not authorized to speak on internal party deliberations.
Several members of Mr. Poilievre’s staff have announced they are leaving, though they say their departures aren’t connected to the defeat. Among those exiting are his director of communications, Ben Woodfinden; his director of issues management, Brian Bateson; and his director of media relations, Sebastian Skamski.
Tuesday’s meeting has two parts. The first involves MPs voting on whether or not to adopt the four provisions of the Reform Act, a piece of legislation that gives rank-and-file MPs more say in how they are governed as a caucus.
MPs will vote on giving themselves the power to elect or dismiss a caucus chair, to expel or readmit MPs, to launch a leadership review, and to elect an interim party leader.
Mr. Poilievre remains party leader, but absent a seat in the House of Commons he can’t be Leader of the Official Opposition.
The party will need someone to fill that role until he is elected as an MP. It’s not clear whether caucus will elect that person or Mr. Poilievre will appoint someone.
The second part of Tuesday’s meeting will be a broader caucus discussion ahead of Parliament’s return later this month.
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer – House leader in the last Parliament – said how the party will approach the newly elected Liberal government will depend on Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We want to see what Mr. Carney is going to offer Canadians and we’ll evaluate his legislative agenda as he unveils it,” he told The Globe in an interview Friday.
Under the Conservatives’ constitution, Mr. Poilievre must face a leadership review at the next party convention.
The constitution also says that when a leader isn’t an MP or senator, they can ask the party for a salary equivalent to that of an MP.
With a report from Marie Woolf