The country is in a tariff war with Trump and we need all hands deck to save Canadian jobs and industries. If he insists on continuing the election fight against the Liberals, Poilievre is never going to increase his base or get women back.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on May 19, 2025.
OTTAWA—Pierre Poilievre’s people say they want him to soften his edges.
It doesn’t seem like he is listening.
In his press conference following the appointment of the new cabinet last week, Poilievre said a few nice words in the beginning, but then he could not refrain from individually attacking almost everything about the new Liberal cabinet.
His attacks were all very personal. He went so far as to accuse new Justice Minister Sean Fraser of being responsible for the housing crisis.
Poilievre despises Chrystia Freeland, and was positively vitriolic when referencing her contributions to the previous government.
Poilievre still hasn’t figured out that the best way to succeed in politics is to be hard on issues and soft on people.
He needs to understand why women, in particular, do not support him.
His style of politics—using nasty, personal vitriol mixed in with simple sloganeering—does not sit well with women.
Some men like the vitriol. They are up for a good fight. Poilievre got a roar from the crowd when his presence was announced at the Montreal Ultimate Fighting Championship last week.
But the crowd was mostly the same group who are already part of his core voting supporters. If he wants to grow, he has to reach out beyond them and try for the softer side.
The audience at the Bell Centre was mostly young men, and even though there was a women’s bout, not many were visible in the audience.
Why? Because most women don’t like fighting. And the nasty personal nature of the Poilievre attacks during the election did not win him many female supporters.
Some might argue I am being too harsh. When former prime minister Justin Trudeau participated in a boxing match, his victory was hailed as a political stroke of genius. But Trudeau was trying to reverse his image as a softy drama teacher. When he did manage to beat down Senator Patrick Brazeau, everyone was shocked at how easily it happened.
Then he moved on.
In Poilievre’s case, he seems stuck in fighting mode, even when the times dictate a change in tone.
Canadians awarded a near-majority mandate to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s team, and, like it or not, Poilievre is going to have to at least pretend that he wants to work with the government.
Instead, conspiracy theories about how he lost his seat are being used as fundraising tools for his party.
Contrary to the rumour mill, the redistribution that happens every decade is carried out by the non-partisan Federal Election Boundaries Commission. The chair of the commission in each province is named by the chief justice of each province, and other members are named by the Speaker of the House of Commons, who is also chosen by an all-party vote.
Poilievre actually gained more Conservatives in his new riding after redistribution.
But he lost by more than 4,000 votes because people were upset about how he backed the anti-vaxxer occupiers who took over the streets of Ottawa for almost a month in 2022.
Poilievre picked his side, bringing donuts and coffee to people who blasted truck horns 24 hours a day in residential communities. As for his constituents, they were on the other side.
And his Liberal opponent Bruce Fanjoy spent two years knocking on every door in the riding.
Now Poilievre is being shuffled off to Alberta to run in what is arguably one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.
He will be confronted with separatists who have already begun their campaign to take Alberta out of the country. Premier Danielle Smith has loosened the rules to get a referendum on the ballot by lowering the threshold and allowing businesses to fund referenda efforts.
Not sure why a business should have a say in a vote on the future of the country, but Smith has admitted publicly the changes were allowed in an effort to keep her United Conservative Party from splitting into two factions, and opening the door to the election of Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Naheed Nenshi.
Poilievre will not be able to avoid that fight, and the whole country will be watching him.
If he does plan to win the next election, Poilievre needs to focus on the real fight ahead.
The country is in a tariff war with United States President Donald Trump, and we need all hands deck to save Canadian jobs and industries. If he insists on continuing the election fight against the Liberals, Poilievre is never going to increase his base or get women back.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
