Canada’s Conservative Leader Echoes Reagan As His Party Regroups

CALGARY, Alberta — Canada's Conservative leader channeled a legendary American president as he secured his hold on the party grassroots — and and debuted his new message to voters for a federal election that could come as early as spring.

Pierre Poilievre is rebuilding after last year's election defeat, losing to Mark Carney, a rookie Liberal politician who leapfrogged and stunned the once-favored Conservatives.

Before the Liberal comeback, the Conservatives seemed set to ride a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment sweeping much of the Western world.

Instead, Carney scooped enough seats to form a minority government. The Liberals even won Poilievre’s Ottawa-area seat, forcing him to run in a special election in a safe Alberta riding in order to return to the House.

Ahead of the weekend’s mandatory postelection leadership review in Calgary, Poilievre whipped up more than 2,500 delegates in the beating heart of Canadian conservatism.

The Conservative leader, a longtime admirer of Ronald Reagan, echoed the former president's 1980 pitch on his way to a crushing victory: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

That, Poilievre said, will be the question Canadians face in the next election.

"After 10 years of Liberal rule, Canada is more costly and crimeridden, dangerous and dependent and divided than ever before. Now, Mr. Carney, he promised to change all that, but here we are a year later. And what's changed? The words have changed. The style has changed. But what's changed in your life? Really?"

Steve Outhouse, the veteran operative tapped to lead the next Conservative campaign, acknowledged that "What's changed?” will feed party messaging.

"I would not bank on that necessarily being the ultimate ballot question," he said. "But it's certainly part of the discussion."

Tick tock goes the clock

If Poilievre hopes to be Canada's next prime minister, he might just need a little time.

On Friday, he persuaded 87.4 percent of party delegates to keep him in the top job, clearing a major hurdle in the way of an electoral rematch.

Carney came to power promising that ambitious progress on homebuilding, economic growth, a beefed-up military and diversified trade would lead to a better quality of life.

The prime minister made global headlines when he brought the Davos crowd to its feet following a World Economic Forum speech that declared the old global order dead.

Many Conservatives acknowledge the prime minister is on a hot streak.

A recent Leger Research survey gave the Liberals 47 percent support, with Conservatives trailing at 38 percent.

Conservatives had fought their way to a national polling stalemate before Carney’s star turn in Davos. The PM's speech scored big back home.

For the first time in months, daylight now separates the two parties in horse-race polls. Poilievre is also far less personally popular than the guy in charge.

But the PM's big promises could also bite him if he fails to start producing results or solidify his hold on power.

If Carney gains two more Liberal MPs he'd command a majority of seats in the House of Commons that could extend the Liberal government's term until 2029. The specter of a floor-crossing Conservative was still a live issue at the party convention.

Ben Woodfinden, Poilievre's communications director during the last campaign, said the clock can play to Conservative advantage if voters don't see their lives improve.

“If Carney doesn't deliver and that becomes more apparent to people, that is good for Conservatives."

Stick to the script

Poilievre's remarkably consistent worldview stretches back to political essays he penned as a teenager. For more than two decades, he has preached about the virtues of freedom.

His Calgary remarks amplified well-worn priorities: the anxiety-inducing cost of living, crime and public safety, reduced immigration levels and more spending on national security.

He has for years defied expectations he'd "pivot" from issues perceived as missing the moment. Some expected him to moderate his aggressive tone when he won the party leadership in 2022. Others thought he'd change tack at the dawn of the second Trump administration, firing back at Donald Trump’s occasional threats to absorb Canada.

Poilievre did not name the U.S. president onstage at the Calgary convention. The closest he came was a rallying cry aimed broadly at foreign threats.

"United and strong, Canadians will bow before no nation anywhere on earth. Canada must make new friends, honor our alliances and do our part on resources, trade, diplomacy, foreign aid and everything else," he told the audience. "It's clear we must prioritize our own national interest above all else."

The Calgary speech borrowed heavily from Poilievre’s pitch to voters on the 2025 campaign trail, at the party's 2023 convention, and even when he sought the party leadership.

Taleeb Noormohamed, a Liberal lawmaker who took in the speech as an observer, called the remarks a "missed opportunity" to rise about partisanship.

"Canadians feel a deep sense of anxiety and national pride at the same time," said Noormohamed. "When they ask who is going to help them with anxiety and fill them with pride, it isn’t Poilievre who spent the last several years talking about how Canada is broken."

Noormohamed claimed Poilievre spoke only to the delegates whose votes he required, not the rest of the country watching from home.

Poilievre’s campaign manager did not buy that critique.

"I honestly reject the premise that this messaging is not something that speaks to people outside of our base," Outhouse said. As evidence, he noted 41 percent of voters ticked a Conservative box in the last election.

"When people keep encouraging us to pivot, underlying all that is a piece of bad political advice, which is to make him inauthentic, to make him something he's not," Outhouse said.

In recent years, ad campaigns have cast Poilievre in a softer light — a family man who cares deeply for the troubled voters he meets at town halls and shop floors.

Conservatives need to appeal more to voters' emotions, Outhouse said.

"We as a Conservative movement don't do as good a job communicating emotively," he said. "We need to acknowledge people often are making voting decisions based on the heart versus just the head."

Generational opportunity

If Conservatives have a secret weapon, it may be younger voters.

They've flocked to Conservatives, energized by Poilievre's pledge to make homes and groceries affordable, jobs plentiful and communities safe. The progressive New Democratic Party, which has sagged in polls, no longer captures that vote. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau energized youth on his way to victory in 2015.

Now, Conservatives have flipped the script.

Woodfinden said the party looks noticeably younger than past incarnations. It's no longer the domain of grey hair.

"This is easily the youngest convention I've ever been to by a mile," Woodfinden said. "They are not giving up on young voters."