Editorial

November 12 2025

Poilievre adds to his unpopularity

In November of 2024, all the polling pointed to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives romping over Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the upcoming federal election.

The prime minister’s office was Poilievre’s for the taking. National research firm Abacus measured Conservative support at 43 per cent. The Liberals were 22 points behind, tied with the NDP at 21 per cent.

Fast forward one year and we see the Conservatives and Poilievre, both party and leader, in a vastly different position. Gone is that 22-point lead and the Conservatives, instead of amassing a huge majority government from the 2025 election, now sit in opposition to Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal minority government.

So why have the Conservatives plummeted so far and so quickly? It is not the popularity of the party brand relative to the Liberals. While it is true that the Conservatives have lost their huge lead in the polls from a year ago when Justin Trudeau was prime minister, they are still numerically tied with the Carney Liberals in most polls.

The Conservatives and Liberals are indeed neck and neck in the polls, except in one vital area: Poilievre badly trails Prime Minister Carney on the question of leadership. In most polls, by about 20 points.

For many Canadians, Poilievre’s leadership style is seen as too close to the MAGA crowd south of the border. His recent musings that the RCMP looked the other way on scandals during the Trudeau years, such as SNC-Lavalin, is the kind of thing we might hear from the current White House.

The latest example of his unpopular leadership style stems from Tory MP Chris d’Entremont’s decision to cross over to the Liberals. The Nova Scotia MP made his announcement Nov. 4, federal budget day.

MPs crossing from Conservatives to Liberals and vice-versa is as old as Confederation, including from the Liberals to the Harper government in which Poilievre was a member. But the level of vitriol and the attacks that d’Entremont reported being leveled against him by members of the Conservative leadership team are disconcerting, to say the least.

“Quite honestly, a lot of times I felt it was part of a frat house rather than a serious political party,” d’Entremont said.

The chances of Poilievre ever becoming prime minister are remote. He lost the big lead in the polls from last year; he lost the federal election (including his own seat) and now he is losing caucus members (Nov. 6 another Conservative MP announced he would be resigning). For someone who is known as an effective communicator, Poilievre’s approach is not one that we would associate with a future prime minister.

Perhaps the Conservative leader’s window of opportunity has come and gone. The party has a major challenge on its hands in charting a path forward.