Pierre Poilievre is the reason why the Liberals will be in power for a while. On Jan. 31, Pierre Poilievre won his Conservative leadership review with an outstanding 87.4 per cent of the vote. Though this is a major victory for Poilievre, this is not the end of his worries.
Recently, Matt Jeneroux, the formerly Conservative MP of Edmonton Riverbend, crossed the floor from Poilievre’s Conservatives for Carney’s Liberals. His departure marks the third MP leaving Poilievre’s Conservatives since the 2025 election campaign. Despite the losses of Chris D’Entremont and Micheal Ma, Poilievre has obtained a high approval rating from the party. This current hemorrhaging of MPs raises the question: is Poilievre electable? The answer is a resounding no.
Since time immemorial, one rule in Canadian politics has been proven true time and time again: if you want to govern, you must govern from the centre. Unfortunately for Poilievre, after years in the spotlight, he is already defined as a man of the right. In July 2025, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that one of his regrets in his time in office was his ideological fervor during a conference in Saskatoon. Harper went on to point out that one should never be too ideological when in government, as one must govern all Canadians.
This advice is paramount to the survival of a Conservative leader as two out of three post-war Conservative, and Progressive Conservative Prime Ministers — John G. Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney, governed fairly to the centre — with the outlier being Stephen Harper.
Poilievre doesn’t seem to want to take this advice from his predecessor. In contrast, he seems to be doubling down on the rhetoric that was once successful against former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His dog whistles to ight-wing populism may have worked once, but in the era of Carney — where Canada is faced with a wave of Trump’s economic bullying tactics and threats of annexation — it will not.
It was so apparent that things will not change that Jason Kenney, the former Premier of Alberta who is regarded as an elder statesman of the modern conservative movement, criticized Pierre Poilievre for not mentioning U.S. President Donald Trump once in his speech to Conservative members at the recent convention in Calgary.
Though this criticism is an issue for Poilievre, it’s not the only one. He has clung to the reins for far too long and has allowed no one else to do so. In most cases political parties are akin to monarchies — there must always be an heir and a spare.
Every leader allows their front bench — those closest to them and those most competent to succeed them — to have their moment in the spotlight. Here, think of Trudeau and Freeland, Harper and Flaherty, or Martin and Goodale. Yet, Poilievre seems to have no one to grab on to the reins if, or when, he’s pushed off the cart.
I may not be a supporter of the Conservative Party of Canada, but I am worried about Canadian democracy. I recognize the need for competent opposition to bring a solid alternative to the main powers in government. However, an inept opposition creates stale and frankly corrupt governments. One does not want Canada to end up in a 1.5 party system like Japan, whose LDP has become synonymous with both government and corruption.
In the end, if Pierre Poilievre doesn’t move to the centre, he shouldn’t expect to move into 24 Sussex anytime soon.