People who know Pierre Poilievre say that what you see is what you get, that Pierre is Pierre, and he’s not about to change now.
Back in the 2022 Conservative leadership campaign, this was presented as a positive trait. Unlike Erin O’Toole, freshly ousted by the Conservative caucus, Poilievre wouldn’t tell the party’s base one thing and then moderate or change his positions to appeal more broadly to the general public.
But while sticking to your principles can be an admirable thing, it doesn’t make the business of winning elections any easier — particularly when Canadian voters have already rejected you once.
And while those principles might not change, context constantly does. Poilievre was trouncing then-prime minister Justin Trudeau in opinion polls earlier this year, only to lose a double-digit polling lead and an election to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Poilievre has shown no evidence he intends to change tack to win over more voters, recently telling reporters he felt no need to reflect on his leadership style after losing one MP to the Liberals and another to a surprise retirement. But while there are obvious perils to running the same playbook that lost you an election, for Poilievre there is peril in changing things up, too.
Recent research published by the Consortium on Electoral Democracy suggests Poilievre motivates his party’s base more strongly than a “moderate” conservative leader.