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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will face a leadership review in January.Andrej Ivanov/Getty Images
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre paused when asked how he’d describe the last year.
He was speaking with The Globe and Mail as part of a run of year-end interviews, many of which focused on the news of the two MPs who quit his party and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals.
The surprise defections brought the minority Liberals to within one seat of a majority, and no one knows for certain whether another MP will go and if they do, whether Mr. Poilievre can remain as leader.
The floor-crossers followed a year in which Mr. Poilievre failed to defeat the Liberals in the general election this spring despite leading in the polls for months prior to the campaign. Voices inside and outside the party have been calling for change.
The way he sees it, though, the best is yet to come.
“It was a busy, challenging year that I think will set the stage for more success in 2026,” he said.
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Mr. Poilievre said that Canadians are looking for someone who speaks about their concerns on how to make ends meet – and that his party is delivering.
“We’re the only party that offers them anything resembling that,” he said.
“So, as the days go by, Mark Carney moves away from making promises to making excuses. He also increasingly owns the status quo. It will be an even greater opportunity for us to say we can do better. We can make your life more affordable.”
Mr. Poilievre is under pressure to prove that he actually can do better.
At a convention in late January, party members will decide if he stays on as leader, a vote triggered by his failure to win the spring election.
After the loss, Mr. Poilievre had been asked what lessons he was taking away from the campaign.
At the time, he pointed to the math: His party had to figure out how to adjust to an electoral landscape in which 41.3 per cent of the national popular vote isn’t enough to form government. Stephen Harper won a majority for the Conservatives in 2011 with only 39.6 per cent of the vote.
In the interview, Mr. Poilievre said the answer is to double down on the strategy that won seats away from the NDP: a focus on blue-collar workers and everyday Canadians struggling to get by.
“I want to make sure that they feel like we’re delivering for them; you’re fighting for them every single day” he said.
The Conservatives did increase their seat count in the April election, and their share of the popular vote was the highest the Conservatives have received since the modern-day party was formed in 2003.
But veteran MPs and rookies alike had thought the 2025 election would put them in government, not back on the opposition bench. Ontario MP Michael Ma cited a desire to be on the winning side when he crossed the floor to the Liberals earlier this month.
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Still, polls show the Conservatives as a party remain neck and neck with the Liberals, something many point to when the subject of Mr. Poilievre’s future is raised.
“Poll after poll is showing that Canadians are rejecting Carney’s bait and switch and endorsing Pierre’s vision for hope,” Conservative MP Chris Warkentin posted to social media recently.
“We will not stop, we won’t be divided, we will bring that hope!”
James Moore, a former Conservative cabinet minister in the Harper government, says there is a tension Mr. Poilievre must resolve, between a conservative movement just happy with the Liberals getting embarrassed and those who want to see a party ready to govern.
“There are a lot of people in the movement who want to keep the movement happy, who want to keep the broad sort of conservative consensus happy, and they’re missing the moment of appealing to Canadians who want an alternative government that is thoughtful in the moment, and putting forward a truly substantial platform,” he said on CTV’s Question Period on Dec. 14.
“I think that’s the pivot that Pierre has to make, or otherwise he will never be Prime Minister.”
But Mr. Poilievre said there is no difference between the movement and the party.
Both want life to be affordable, home ownership possible, budgets balanced and immigration under control, he said.
“That’s what the movement is asking for, and that’s what we would do in government.”
After Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to the Liberals – offering scathing criticisms of Mr. Poilievre in the process – the leader was asked whether his style needed to change.
No, Mr. Poilievre replied. The Globe asked why he felt that way.
“People know that I’m a fighter,” he said.
“The one thing I need to do more of is show them what and who I’m fighting for.”
But that’s not to say that Mr. Poilievre isn’t changing anything at all.
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Jenni Byrne, who was campaign manager in 2025, won’t run the next election, though she remains involved in the party – she represents the leader at national council meetings.
At the last meeting of the year, they approved new candidate nomination rules, a direct response to complaints from grassroots members about the process.
Since the election, Mr. Poilievre has also regularly hosted small groups of MPs for breakfast at the Official Opposition residence to build stronger relationships.
Mr. Ma and Mr. d’Entremont were among those who attended such events.
When asked what he’s doing to try and stop others from crossing the floor, Mr. Poilievre described his leadership style as disciplined and inclusive.
“We work hard to keep everybody included in the whole process,” he said, referencing the party’s policy positions.
He didn’t answer whether he thinks Mr. Ma’s departure was the last, only that he thinks MPs should respect the will of voters.
Mr. Poilievre said it will be up to party membership to decide whether he remains as leader, and in the meantime, he’ll remain focused on the issues.
“Whether the election is next year or in 2029, I still think the cost of living is going to be at the forefront,” he said.
There’s another subject on his radar: artificial intelligence.
Though he normally brings up problems and presents solutions to them in tandem, AI isn’t one he’s figured out.
It’s bigger than simply considering what it means for jobs lost to robots, he said.
“How is meaning going to come across in our lives, when, if, somewhere down the road a lot of what we do that gives us meaning is replaced by machines that do it for us,” he said.
“These are things I think about a lot and I don’t have all the answers on them.”
