Pierre Poilievre dismisses calls for pivot as Liberals lead in polls

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OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre says he disagrees with calls from some supporters for him to change his election strategy amid a Liberal surge in the polls, arguing that he should not stop talking about the “lost Liberal decade.”

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Monday morning, he poopooed any suggestion that he should pivot his campaign messaging towards a more forceful response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada, despite some voices suggesting he is missing the “ballot question.”

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The Conservative leader said he would not stop criticizing the government for the “lost Liberal decade” and for failing to address crime, rising housing costs, the fentanyl crisis and affordability issues.

“Some people have said that … we should just ignore all of those things. I disagree. My purpose in politics is to restore Canada’s promise so that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything,” Poilievre told reporters during a campaign stop in Saint John, N.B.

“The threats, the unjustified threats by President Trump, further strengthen the argument in favour of the ‘Canada First’ agenda that I’ve been fighting for my whole life,” he added.

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The Conservative campaign has been dogged for days by public and private calls from conservative operatives and strategists to pivot their campaign messaging to focus more on combatting economic threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Since Friday, multiple media reports have detailed quiet campaign infighting, and some surprisingly harsh comments out loud by a conservative strategist arguing Poilievre needs to refocus his message or risk leading the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive loss to the Liberals.

Ontario Progressive Conservative top strategist Kory Teneycke, who recently helped lead the party to a record third consecutive majority win, said last week U.S. tariffs have to become Poilievre’s ballot box issue.

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“These are tsunami waves that are crashing down trees and buildings and everything in their path right now,” he said of the tariffs during an event hosted by the Empire Club last week. “You’ve got to get on the f—ing ballot question or you are going to lose.”

He also said Poilievre looks and sounds too much like Trump in the eyes of voters, namely with his “Canada First” slogan.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former director of communications said that everyone in a party needs work in unison if they want to won.

“There are always tensions within a political family,” Dimitri Soudas said on Radio-Canada. “If Conservatives or the Liberals want to win an election, it takes a team that is rowing in the same direction. It makes a difference.”

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A new poll by Nanos Research this weekend suggested Mark Carney’s Liberals have a nearly eight-point lead over the Conservatives. It’s a stark difference from when the Conservatives had a double-digit lead in the polls over the Justin Trudeau Liberals just a few months ago.

But on Monday, Poilievre’s response suggested he was not interested in Teneycke’s insight as he argued that he’d been fighting against the Liberal and Trump agendas for a decade now.

“I am the only leader in the country that offers any change. And the choice again is whether, after this lost Liberal decade of rising costs and crime, with our economy falling under the American thumb, do we give them, can we afford to give them a fourth term, or is it time to put Canada first for a change?” he said.

On Saturday, longtime Tory MP Michelle Rempel Garner said she was skeptical of Teneycke’s sincerity in wanting to help the federal party.

“(Kory) has my cell phone number, and I will hook him up with any of the Conservative campaigns in the Greater Toronto Area, him and his friends, and they are welcome to knock on doors for us,” she told National Post.

She also said that her party’s focus on affordability issues is resonating with voters she speaks to while knocking on doors.

National Post with additional reporting from Rahim Mohamed

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