Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a newly released video he'll learn from the election loss and make his mission to grow the party.
The video, released on social media on May 5, shows Poilievre and his wife Anaida walking on a path in a field in Alberta. The Tory leader, who lost his seat in the election, has been visiting the area of the Battle River—Crowfoot riding in which he plans to run in a byelection after Tory MP Damien Kurek officially steps down.
Poilievre said he has a lot to be thankful for in the election, such as the large crowds attending his rallies, the 2.3 million extra votes compared to the 2021 election, and the 25 extra seats won by his party that came through breakthroughs in Ontario and British Columbia.
“Now it wasn’t enough. We didn’t get over the finish line, which means that I need to learn and grow, and our team needs to expand,” Poilievre said in the video.
Poilievre was attending a caucus meeting in Ottawa on May 6 and was asked by reporters what he has learned from the election and how he can grow.
“I think we all learned is that the map has changed dramatically,” said Poilievre.
“If you told me that one, that we would get 41 percent of the vote a couple years ago, I would have said, ‘wow, that’s ambitious.’ But if you told me that we would get 41 percent of the vote and still not win, I would have said ‘you’re crazy.’”
The Tory leader said Canada’s electoral map is looking increasingly like a two-party map. Conservatives and Liberals grew their seat count while the NDP and the Bloc Québécois saw theirs decrease.
The Tory caucus was meeting to assess the election results, determine who will serve as interim leader in the House of Commons while Poilievre doesn’t have a seat, and decide whether to trigger a leadership review.
Tory MPs who spoke to media on their way to the meeting expressed their support for Poilievre.
This included Andrew Scheer, who has publicly backed Poilievre. Scheer said he is “incredibly optimistic” by how the party fared in the election.
“If you look at the new people that Pierre Poilievre has attracted into the Conservative movement, some people who not only say they’ve never voted Conservative before, but never voted, and so we’re incredibly encouraged by that,” said Scheer.
Later in the day, the Tory caucus chose Scheer to serve as interim Opposition leader in the House of Commons. The Saskatchewan MP served as House leader in the previous Parliament and also as Conservative Party leader for the 2019 election.
The party also decided to invoke the Reform Act to trigger a leadership review, but so far Poilievre’s role as leader hasn’t been openly challenged.
