The Carleton MP is taking over as leader of the federal Conservatives and his sights set on forming government.
More than 30,000 voters in the suburban Ottawa riding of Nepean-Carleton had decided that Poilievre, a 25-year-old Alberta transplant, should replace seven-year Member of Parliament and defence minister David Pratt as their man in the House of Commons.We deliver the local news you need in these turbulent times on weekdays at 3 p.m.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“It’s an extraordinary feeling, and I accept this sacred trust with tremendous humility,” he told supporters gathered at the Bells Corners Legion. “This is no time for boasting though, it is a time for reflecting on the tasks ahead of me.”Article content There also exists in Carleton a smaller-scale version of the polarized reaction to Poilievre — hope and admiration, anger and fear — that’s now playing out on the national stage as the 43-year-old prepares to take over as leader of the Conservative party.Article content
In the week leading up to July 1, he glad-handed in his fluent French in Montreal and Trois-Rivières and walked briefly alongsideto protest COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Then he headed west in early July, swapping his red Canada Day polo for Calgary Stampede cowboy fashion. Retail politics are part of the arsenal of many a successful politician, and Poilievre’s been honing the craft at soapbox races and plowing matches in his Parliament-adjacent riding for two decades, while growing from brash political whiz-kid to a seven-term MP, husband and father of two young children.
“His biggest thing is the people are in control,” said Modesti, who grew up in the riding and worked on two of Poilievre’s election campaigns. “So if the people are his boss — like he believes — he wants to go to talk to as many as he can in person.”Article content Pierre Poilievre, pictured at a campaign event in Calgary in April, has steadily grown his profile since first arriving on the Hill after the 2004 election.What Poilievre has gained from meeting thousands of people on doorsteps and now at the large rallies that became a major focal point of his leadership campaign is not just the opportunity to leave his footprint in their psyches.
There were no more in-person appearances with the protesters-turned-occupiers on his social feed after that, but his support for their calls to drop the mandates and pandemic restrictions continued in earnest.Article content In addition to her concern about the party brand and its electoral prospects in different parts of the country, “I actually think that Pierre has hurt himself in this riding,” said LeBreton.
Kars resident Shaun Tolson says he had voted for Poilievre every election but won’t be doing so in the next one after watching his MP and the Conservative party’s response to the Freedom Convoy protest. “Trudeau wants to run this country like a dictatorship. And stands up and says, ‘Where is this money being spent? … Everybody in caucus, nobody says anything to it.”
“If you asked somebody today, are they better off than they were five years ago? And I’m willing to bet you most people would say they’re no better off today than they were five years ago. And that’s got to change,” Shaw said.The convoy protest was a hot potato for political parties, Poilievre observed in a May podcast interview with former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson. And he was still holding on to it.