By withstanding perhaps the worst case of foreign interference in Canadian electoral history, and managing to grow his party’s share of the House of Commons despite the electorate’s sudden Liberal rush, it’s clear that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre deserves his place at the head of the party.
There will again come a time when Canadians will have an opportunity to vote for change — and Poilievre should be there to lead when it does.
It’s true that the embattled party leader suffered setbacks of significance. His fortunes of leading the party at a time when the country was most receptive to new Conservative ideas crumbled as President Donald Trump assumed office in the United States and immediately waged a trade war — accented with threats of annexation — against Canada. Trump’s fixation immediately boosted the Liberals’ standings and, well, you know the rest.
Aside from losing the election after holding a commanding lead for months previous, he lost his own seat of Carleton, in suburban-rural Ottawa.
But, the only way to fairly evaluate the setbacks suffered by Poilievre is to take them in stride with his accomplishments, which are far greater than anything achieved by the two party leaders who preceded him.
Poilievre at his height had the party
by
. Even when party support collapsed post-Trump — and this was only a collapse in the relative sense, since he retained most of his support — he still managed to grow the party’s foothold in Parliament. Poilievre now leads a party caucus of 144 seats, which makes his caucus larger than those of former prime minister Stephen Harper in both 2006 and 2008, as well as those of Andrew Scheer in 2019 and Erin O’Toole in 2021. He also gained
of the total vote share — a level unseen by the party since 1988, which, back then, won them a majority.
Poilievre’s Conservatives notably surged in Ontario. Before the election, they held only
of the province’s ridings; in 2025, they’re now at
(the Liberals, by contrast, have 70 Ontario seats, down from 77), with a strong showing in the 905.
Less quantifiable — but more impactful on the daily lives of Canadians — has been Poilievre’s influence on completely changing the conversation in Canadian politics, transforming the Conservative party from defence to offence.
On climate policy, the party was once completely under the thumb of the Liberals. After fighting the carbon tax since its inception under Trudeau, in 2021, then-Conservative leader O’Toole
that a carbon tax on fuel should be kept in place — a major flip-flop, as he had promised during his leadership campaign to get rid of the tax. O’Toole went further and proposed the
of special carbon-rebate bank accounts, which would only be spendable on government-approved climate-friendly purchases. It was almost as if the party was trying to out-Liberal the Liberals.
Affordability, meanwhile, took a back seat. The Liberals took the offensive, inflaming social divisions by encouraging the country to see the world in terms of race, sex and COVID vaccine status and berating the Tories for not doing the same.
Poilievre took a sledgehammer to the status quo, embodying the frustrations of so many Canadians at a time when it felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. He unapologetically held the Liberals to account, forcing then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to answer for impoverishing the country. Instead of cowering to avoid attacks of COVID-denialism — a common, false accusation the Liberals launched against Conservatives — he was
for Trudeau’s inflationary, COVID-excused overspending.
Instead of supporting drug consumption sites — as the Conservatives
under Erin O’Toole — Poilievre
to close them. Instead of staying silent and avoiding the question of whether to cap immigration altogether — as
and
both did — Poilievre boldly
that he’d tie his intake numbers to homebuilding. And on the carbon tax, Poilievre’s steadfast criticism brought the Liberals to abandon their beloved flagship policy. At no point did he slouch away in shame of his own party; he stood up for common sense, and, until Trump stole the attention of Canadians, he had election-winning levels of support from his countrymen.
Trump’s interference in 2025, much like John F. Kennedy’s open
to defeat Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker in 1963, robbed Canadians of an election about domestic issues at home. What should have been on the ballot in both elections was governance; it should have been a referendum on which party was better-poised to lead Canada into the coming years, and fix the broken bits left behind after longtime Liberal rule. Instead, we got an election about Trump — a temporary hurdle that inspired more fright than it should have, due to Canada’s weakened state after its decade of waste and decline.
Poilievre knows what he has to do next. In a post-election video, he
his followers that “it wasn’t enough. We didn’t get over the finish line, which means that I need to learn and grow, and our team needs to expand.”
The underlying fundamentals that made Poilievre the best leader the Conservatives have seen since Harper haven’t changed. His support is high. His principles are strong. He still has what it takes to win — and for the good of the Conservative movement, the party must give him that chance.
National Post
