Carney’s Conservative Rival Poilievre Wins Fresh Landslide in Party Review

Pierre Poilievre on Jan. 30. Photographer: Allison Seto/Bloomberg Photo by Allison Seto /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Canada’s opposition Conservative Party voted to hand a fresh endorsement to its leader Pierre Poilievre nine months after a shock election which saw him narrowly lose to Mark Carney’s Liberal Party.

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The landslide vote cements Poilievre’s position as the prime minister’s primary domestic critic and may help him move on from doubts after two of his lawmakers defected to Carney’s party at the end of last year.

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Some 87% of party delegates voted in favor of Poilievre, according to a statement from the Conservative Party.

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His keynote speech immediately before the ballot garnered standing ovations and cheers from a packed room. Many delegates in the BMO Centre sported badges professing their support with slogans like “United with Pierre.”

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Poilievre defended his record and said: “We won the debate in the last election on every single one of the big issues.” He blamed separatist sentiment in the provinces of Alberta and Quebec on federal Liberal governments, and celebrated the younger demographic of his party’s voters. 

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The Conservatives have lost four consecutive elections to the Liberals. In the April 2025, vote Poilievre fell in a matter of months from a position of being a heavy polling favorite to win and become prime minister to losing not just the election but his own seat in Parliament.

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This is the first time in two decades the Conservative Party has given a leader a second chance after a loss. The vote was held at the Conservative Convention in Calgary, Alberta, and was triggered by the party’s constitution because Poilievre lost the election.

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Although public opinion polls have been close for much of 2025 since April’s election, the Liberals have widened a polling lead over their main rivals in recent weeks. No Conservative lawmakers have openly challenged Poilievre’s leadership. 

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The last time a Conservative leader was handed another chance following a loss came after Stephen Harper lost the 2004 election. He garnered 84% of the vote in a subsequent leadership review, went on to win the 2006 election and was prime minister for nine years.

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Poilievre’s predecessor, Erin O’Toole, was ousted by a secret ballot of caucus parliamentarians after losing the 2021 election, and the leader before him, Andrew Scheer, resigned after 2019’s loss.

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Each of Canada’s 343 parliamentary ridings was eligible to send up to 10 party delegates to the conference, according to the party constitution — though not all could send a full slate, meaning the poll was likely between 2,000 and 3,000 votes.

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Poilievre decisively won the Conservative leadership in September 2022. His leadership has been defined by aggressive internet-savvy communications and campaigning focused on attacking the government’s economic record, and accusing it of being soft on crime.