BY DANIEL SIMS
Special to the News
I’ve gotta feel for Pierre Poilievre. No doubt, last night was a rough night for him. He went from referring to himself as prime minister in last 2024/early 2025 to not only losing the federal election but also being defeated in his own riding.
This sentiment might shock some people. We live in a world where many people consider empathy to be inappropriate, especially if it is for someone we disagree with. Similarly, trying to understand why people we disagree with believe something is often conflated with support for those beliefs, especially if you are self-aware enough – and confident enough – to admit if there is something you agree with. I blame being a philosophy major for my first two years of university for this personal failing of mine. I like to try to understand things.
I was first made aware of Pierre Poilievre in 2008 when he marred the apology for Indian residential schools by arguing on the same day it was given that Indigenous peoples were, and I am going to paraphrase here, getting too money and needed to develop a better work ethic. He would later apologize for his statements, but it should come as no surprise that it came up during the last election.
To say Justin Trudeau was unpopular is an understatement. The same is true for the fact that his popularity was dropping as time went on. Yet for some reason neither Andrew Scheer nor Erin O’Toole were able to defeat him in the last two federal elections. Yet, and this reason is one of the main reasons for why I feel bad for Pierre Poilievre, throughout 2024 and at the start 2025 it seemed like Trudeau’s unpopularity was so bad that the Conservatives were guaranteed to win the next federal election. He and his supporters even started talking about him as if he was prime minister. Pride goeth before the fall, and in hindsight it appears they were counting their chickens before they hatched.
It didn’t help that Pierre Poilievre started campaigning long before the federal election. At the risk of comparing federal politics to a poker game, he played his hand well before he had to, thereby giving his opponents an advantage when it came to responding to it. Focus your attack on Justin Trudeau, while remaking yourself to appear hip and cool – the Liberals get rid of Justin Trudeau and replace him with a financier. Make axe the tax your election slogan – the new Liberal leader gets rid of it – well sort of.
It also did not help that internationally the conservative movement was far from a united front, with Premier Doug Ford refusing to help the federal party in any significant way and Premier Danielle Smith embracing aspects of American conservatism regardless of whether Canadians, or even Albertans, supported the move. Indeed, it would appear that President Trump was instrumental in the defeat of Pierre Poilievre through his policies that are threat to not only the Canadian economy, but also Canadian sovereignty. For some reason some people forget that we are not the United States and making American great again in no way, shape, or form means making Canadian great again. Quite interestingly President Trump might help the Labor Party in Australia pull off a similar victory after the conservative Liberal-National Coalition seemed posed to win.
It is not entirely true the Pierre Poilievre only had one job in his life, but most of his jobs have been connected to being a politician. And this the second reason why I feel bad for Pierre Poilievre. He was so close, and yet so far away, to being prime minister. Given the way the Conservatives have handled leaders who lost federal elections in the past, it is quite likely that he will not get a second chance. And to add insult to injury, he lost his long-held seat to the Liberal candidate. Now if he even wants to remain in parliament, he needs to get a conservative candidate who won to give up their seat so that there can be a byelection. And while certainly it would be a candidate in a quote-unquote safe seat, there is no guarantee he’ll win and indeed, given that he might not remain leader of the Conservatives, no guarantee that someone will give up their seat for him. What a position to be in for man who was utterly convinced he’d be the next prime minister.
Daniel Sims is an Associate Professor in the Department First Nations Studies and Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia with a PhD in history. He also a band member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation.