Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he lost his Ottawa riding because of a campaign by public sector unions after he was “honest” about plans to cut federal worker jobs if elected.
Poilievre had held the Carleton riding for about 20 years before he lost his seat in the recent federal election to Bruce Fanjoy, who won 50.9 percent of the vote. Poilievre won 45.7 percent of the vote.
Poilievre said the Conservatives were clear they would cut public sector jobs if they were elected.
“It was an Ottawa riding with a lot of federal public servants who disagreed with that approach,” he told CBC News. “They ran a very aggressive campaign, particularly the public sector unions did, to defeat me on that basis.”
He added that while some said it wasn’t a good idea to run in the riding on a smaller public sector platform, “I had an entire country to represent, and I had to be honest with people.”
He also noted that the Conservatives gained 25 more seats, and attracted more than 8 million voters in the recent election.
“We got the largest share of vote a Conservative Party has had since 1988,” he said. “The voice that I bring represents those 8 million-plus people who believed in my message of fighting inflation, of getting affordable homes built, of locking up criminals, defeating drugs, unleashing our resources. Those messages and those things mattered to those people.”
He said he wanted to “amplify” that voice.
Poilievre lost his seat in Parliament, but is running in a byelection in the Battle River-Crowfoot riding in Alberta, set for Aug. 18. Former Conservative MP Damien Kurek, who won the seat in the federal election, stepped down so Poilievre could run.
Kurek first won the Battle River—Crowfoot riding in 2019 and was re-elected in April with more than 82 percent of the vote. He offered to step down shortly after the election to allow Poilievre to run.
Liberals Hid Plans, Poilievre Says
Poilievre said the Liberal Party also has plans to cut public servants, but was not upfront about it during the election.“I could have done what the Liberals did, which is hide their plans, but I didn’t do that,” he said. “That’s the only way you bring down taxes and deficits and I was honest about that, and the people in that particular constituency voted accordingly.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has asked cabinet ministers to cut department spending by 7.5 percent by the next fiscal year, increasing to 10 percent and 15 percent in subsequent years.
During the election campaign, Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he would cap public sector jobs and look to increase productivity.
Some jobs are already being slashed. In June, the federal department of justice announced it would be letting 264 people go, saying the jobs were no longer needed and it was facing budget pressures.
It follows job losses in other government agencies, including the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The number of federal public service jobs fell by nearly 10,000 over the past year. It is the first decrease since 2015.
Poilievre will face a leadership review in January. The Reform Act, adopted in 2015, allows for secret-ballot votes to review party leadership. This process was used to remove Erin O’Toole as party leader in 2022.
