Pierre Poilievre Is Retained as Leader of Canada’s Conservatives

Canada’s Conservatives Give Their Trump-Inspired Leader a Second ChancePierre Poilievre, a populist who led the Conservative Party to defeat last year, was retained as its leader on Friday, despite his dismal poll numbers.Members of Canada’s Conservative Party voted overwhelmingly on Friday to keep Pierre Poilievre as their leader at a party convention in Calgary, Alberta.Credit...Jennifer Gauthier/ReutersJan. 31, 2026, 8:23 a.m. ETCanada’s main opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, a populist inspired by President Trump, was retained as head of the Conservative Party on Friday, despite having led it to defeat last year in an election it had once been expected to win overwhelmingly.In a speech before the vote at a party convention in Calgary, Alberta, Mr. Poilievre repeated many of the themes from his 2025 campaign, which ended in a loss to the Liberals, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party, in April. Eighty-seven percent of the more than 2,500 Conservatives at the convention voted to keep Mr. Poilievre as their leader, according to results released early Saturday.“You told us to ignore the voices who keep telling us to abandon our conservative principles,” Mr. Poilievre said in his speech, which featured references to “cancel culture” and “identity politics.”He did not mention Mr. Trump, to whom he has often been compared. Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in Canada, but he is supported by parts of the Conservative Party’s base.Mr. Poilievre’s victory at the convention had been expected — he needed only a simple majority — but a tally below 80 percent could have raised questions about his leadership. The result is expected to solidify his control over the party, which has been beset by defections to the Liberals as Mr. Carney’s popularity has grown. Mr. Poilievre’s allies made great efforts to ensure that he won the vote convincingly, staging it in Alberta, Canada’s most conservative province, and recruiting his staunchest supporters.In his speech, Mr. Poilievre said little about moving beyond the party’s hard-line base to win over more mainstream Conservatives or other voters who, according to polls, have strong negative opinions of him. As in his unsuccessful campaign last year, Mr. Poilievre focused on issues like crime and the cost of living.ImageMr. Poilievre and his wife, Anaida Poilievre, after the Conservatives lost the general election last April.Credit...Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York TimesHis victory underscores a growing divide between the Conservatives’ leadership and the mainstream voters they need to win a general election. Polls indicate that Mr. Poilievre remains extremely unpopular nationwide, with nearly 60 percent of voters viewing him unfavorably. The same percentage holds a favorable opinion of Mr. Carney, according to the surveys.About a year ago, Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives had what seemed an insurmountable lead over the Liberals, who had been in power for nine years under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mr. Poilievre had skillfully pummeled Mr. Trudeau on issues of affordability, including the high cost of housing, while exciting his base with attacks on elitism and “wokeism.” He also employed Trumpian tactics, like giving his opponents demeaning nicknames.But the Conservatives suddenly dropped in the polls after Mr. Trudeau resigned and the Liberals replaced him with Mr. Carney, who had led the central banks of Canada and Britain. Mainstream voters, and even some Conservatives, said Mr. Poilievre was too much like Mr. Trump — a comparison that Mr. Poilievre was unable to shake off and that proved crippling as Mr. Trump threatened to annex Canada and imposed steep tariffs on its goods.Not only did the Conservatives lose the general election, but Mr. Poilievre lost the district he had represented for more than two decades. He was able to rejoin Parliament only after an incumbent in Alberta, in one of the country’s staunchest Conservative districts, gave up his seat for him.According to the Conservatives’ constitution, after a general election loss, a leader must face a vote at the party convention to retain his post.Mr. Poilievre has toned down his combative style lately, dropping the nicknames and his highly personal attacks on opponents. But he has hardened some of his populist positions — accusing, for example, Canada’s federal police service of covering up Trudeau-era scandals. His questioning of the force’s integrity has raised eyebrows, including among mainstream Conservatives.Mr. Poilievre’s poll numbers have continued to decline as Mr. Carney’s have risen, thanks to the prime minister’s well-received speech in Davos, Switzerland, about a post-American world order and his attempts to find new partners for Canada. Two members of Parliament recently quit the Conservative Party to join the Liberals, a sign of the parties’ diverging fortunes.Norimitsu Onishi reports on life, society and culture in Canada. He is based in Montreal.SKIP