Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre strikes positive tone ahead of caucus meeting

By Canadian Press on May 6, 2025.

OTTAWA — Conservatives will spend the summer “listening carefully to people” after yet another election loss, leader Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday as he headed into the party’s first caucus meeting since Canadians went to the polls last week.

Poilievre said there is a lot for the Tories to be proud of in the election results, but pointed to the two-party race as a reason the Liberals won.

“If you had told me that we would get 41 per cent of the vote a couple of years ago, I would have said, ‘Wow, that’s ambitious,'” he said.

“But if you told me that we would get 41 per cent of the vote and still not win, I would have said you’re crazy.”

Poilievre, who lost his bid to continue representing the riding of Carleton after 20 years as the area’s MP, will not be in the House of Commons when it opens later this month.

The 143 Conservatives who were elected on April 28 gathered in Ottawa for the first time to discuss the election results on Tuesday in what was expected to be an all-day meeting.

The caucus needs to consider who will take over as Opposition leader in the House of Commons for the spring sitting, because Poilievre is no longer an MP.

They are also expected to discuss provisions of the Reform Act, which would allow caucus members to ask for a secret-ballot vote to review the party leadership.

That’s the mechanism that was used to oust former leader Erin O’Toole after the party failed to beat the Trudeau Liberals in the 2021 election. Poilievre won the leadership in late 2022 with an overwhelming majority of support from Conservative party members.

But Conservatives who spoke to reporters on Tuesday made it clear they expect Poilievre will stay.

Michael Barrett, the former ethics critic who was re-elected in the riding of Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, said “everyone is very supportive, we’re behind Pierre Poilievre.”

Barrett is one of a number of high-profile Conservative who have expressed their support for Poilievre to stay on as leader in the last week.

“We have some lessons to learn from the campaign,” Barrett said. “We’re going to have those conversations in caucus today.”

In a video posted to social media on Monday, Poilievre pledged to “learn and grow,” and said his team needs to expand.

He did not answer questions about what that may mean for Jenni Byrne, the party’s campaign manager who faced criticism from inside and outside of the conservative movement during the election campaign as the party’s lead in the polls evaporated.

“She did a lot of hard work and our team has a lot to be proud of,” Poilievre said.

MP-elect Damien Kurek has said he will resign his seat in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot to give Poilievre the chance to run in a byelection and get a seat in the House of Commons.

The earliest that vote could happen is 47 days after Kurek formally resigns. He can only step down once he’s been sworn in as a member of Parliament. The government has up to 180 days to call the byelection, but Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that he will call it soon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press