OTTAWA — Conservative grassroots will debate amending the party’s policy towards diversity, as well as deleting a clause that says a future government would not support legislation restricting abortion, when they meet in Calgary later this month.
Delegates from across the country will gather at the party’s first convention since the 2025 spring election loss to vote on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s future as party leader, as well as changes to the party’s policy and constitution
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.
Well relocating his seat to Alberta may turn out for the best.
Looks like there will be a separation referendum in Alberta in 2026. As a risk manager, it is important to weigh tail risk events like this.
Alberta’s separation would create a fiscal shock of historic proportions for the country. The province is by far the biggest net…
— Martin Pelletier (@MPelletierCIO) December 28, 2025
h/t Mauser
It’s late December and diehard Leafs fans can still hope for a run for the Stanley Cup. Winter is a time for optimism; spring brings harsh realities.
The same has been true for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). This time last year, they were 25 points ahead in the polls. Pierre Poilievre was cruising to the prime minister’s office until he got hit with a couple of hockey sticks.
Pierre Poilievre says that 2025 has been a “hell of a year.”
Sitting in the boardroom of Postmedia’s headquarters for a year-end interview, it’s an interesting reflection on how things have changed since last year’s interview.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, for the Conservative leader to lose one MP can be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
December is becoming a cruel month for some of Canada’s opposition leaders, from Quebec to B.C. Now, with the second floor crossing from the federal Conservatives to the Liberals in under a month, Pierre Poilievre must consider his own future.
Having lost the April federal election in spectacular fashion — including losing his own seat — the hits keep coming for Poilievre as Mark Carney’s Liberals steal not only his ideas, but also his team, leaving the opposition leader denuded and adrift.
Well that’s an unsettling thought. I mean the denuded part.
The knives are out? Or is someone just testing the water?
Is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a dead man walking? Perhaps not yet, but after MP Michael Ma’s shock floor crossing last week, he is certainly limping. The defection reignited the conversation about Poilievre’s leadership that started at budget time, when Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont defected to the Liberals and fellow MP Matt Jeneroux resigned to sit as an independent, bringing the Liberals within sight of a majority government.
Who?
Less than one week after the Conservatives lost another MP to the Liberals, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won’t explicitly rule out whether more of his caucus members will cross the floor.
“I think Canadians have a reasonable expectation that when you run on a platform to bring down the cost of living, to control spending, to lock up criminals, that you shouldn’t then go and join the party. That’s doing precisely the opposite,” Poilievre said in a year-end interview with CTV News Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos, when asked directly about that possibility.
The deal to have Conservative MP Michael Ma cross the floor to become a Liberal MP was brokered by Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson.
News of the move was kept to a tight inner circle up until the announcement was made — with Ma’s staff not even knowing.
Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre has the support of the majority of Conservative voters, a new poll suggests, as he approaches a leadership review in early 2026.
According to Nov. 30 polling from Abacus Data, 66 percent of Conservative voters say they would vote to keep Poilievre as leader, while 22 percent would vote to replace him, and the remainder were unsure. Among decided Conservative voters, 75 percent would vote to keep Poilievre at the helm.
OTTAWA—Frustrated grassroots Conservatives are mounting efforts to wrest control of candidate nominations away from senior party officials, as members prepare for a national convention where Pierre Poilievre is set to face a critical test of his leadership.
The Conservative party’s national convention will be held at the end of January in Calgary, near the rural riding where Poilievre clinched his parliamentary comeback after the loss of his Ottawa-area seat and a bruising election defeat earlier this year.
OTTAWA–The drama of a budget vote had every political animal in the country on the edge of their seat.
And in the end, it was a cliffhanger. But in reality, the outcome should not have been a surprise to anyone.
Having just come off an election this past spring, there was zero appetite to go back to the polls for most political parties.
The only leader who could have benefited from an election is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. A ‘no’ vote would have meant that his mandated January 2026 party review would be cancelled.
OTTAWA — On a Tuesday night, on the eighth floor of a building bordering Ottawa’s Parliamentary Precinct, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani stood before a small crowd to denounce “Liberal racism” — a form of “discrimination” he believes is eroding meritocracy, eradicating diversity of thought and tearing Canadians apart.
About 50 people filled the nondescript room, where bottles of Bud Light — a beer branded “woke” by the right in 2023 after partnering with a transgender influencer — were cheekily on offer for attendees.
It seems like not an hour goes by without some political observer advancing their particular version of the thesis that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is “in trouble.”
I understand why there’s been a temptation to start writing political obituaries following the departure of two Conservative MPs, obvious though it is that each made the life choice that was ultimately best for them. Pollster David Colleto summed up the situation perfectly with this conundrum: “Poilievre’s popularity is unprecedented. But is his future safe as Conservative leader?”
The short answer is yes.
There has been a good deal of nasty talk recently, especially in notoriously Liberal journalistic circles, about dissenters crumbling away from Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre into the outstretched arms of the Liberal government, straining to scavenge itself into a parliamentary majority. The customary version is that the Liberals are rubbing their hands in glee at this anticipated Conservative disintegration but prayerfully hope that it will not shake out the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, whom they believe to be a permanent doormat for them on the threshold of the prime minister’s residence, (if it is ever ready for reoccupation).
Yesterday, Pierre Poilievre held his first media availability since the floor crossing that had politicos (and many Canadians) picking their jaws up off the floor. He stood at the mic with a few of his MPs, hit his talking points and dodged answering questions about how he plans to hold his caucus together.
