Pierre Poilievre should know better than to get into a public pissing match with senior members of his own party. He is a pugilist by nature. He is also a purist, which is a very dangerous combination in politics.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on July 27, 2026.
OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre must be tearing his hair out.
No matter what happens, Poilievre doesn’t seem to be able to get any traction. With all the issues facing Prime Minister Mark Carney, he doesn’t seem to be suffering any political damage.
Every day, United States President Donald Trump comes up with a new “Hate Canada” reference, and most people are blaming him for the mess of our bilateral relationship.
Imagine having the gall to joke that you are going to add a “smoke” tariff to Canada while our country’s largest province is facing the worst wildfire season in history.
When California was burning, Canada sent in trained aerial firefighters to help save lives and property. So why does the American president have such a short memory?
If he thinks Americans are upset about the lack of their liquor on Canadian sales shelves, imagine how Canadians feel about the barrage of insults levelled by the president against our country on a regular basis.
Carney is not facing the ire of the voters because our anger is currently directed to the man causing all these trade problems: Trump.
After more than a year in office, Carney is still receiving popular support for his approach, even though we continue to suffer increasing tariff threats from south of the border.
Polls are consistently showing that people are willing to cut Carney some slack, which must infuriate Poilievre to no end.
Meanwhile, Poilievre is busy stoking fires internally within his own party.
Most of the flames are of his own making. In a speech at the Calgary Stampede, Poilievre lauded the victory of Kerry-Lynne Findlay in the British Columbia Conservative leadership race. He characterized her triumph as a “big win against Liberal lobbyists from out East.”
The “Liberals” he was referring to were actually Conservatives who had worked on the campaign of Findlay’s main opponent, Caroline Elliott. Her team included Kory Teneycke, former adviser to then-prime minister Stephen Harper and to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Two other well-known Tory organizers for Elliott were Nick Kouvalis and Anthony Koch.
Poilievre fired the first salvo. And therein lies the problem. If the man truly wants to be prime minister, he needs to start turning his guns outward. He certainly cannot afford to start a fight with some of the key organizers from winning Conservative campaigns both federally and provincially.
Elliott produced a video in which she urged the leader to “unite, not divide.” Conservative columnist Brian Lilley wrote a scorching piece publicly questioning whether Poilievre actually wanted to be prime minister.
Lilley also reported that after Poilievre won the party’s leadership in 2022, he spurned multiple attempts by Ford to reach out and congratulate him. The bottom line for Lilley is that Poilievre must decide whether he wants to be right, or to be prime minister.
There is no love lost between Poilievre and Teneycke. But the leader should know better than to get into a public pissing match with a senior member of his own party. Poilievre is a pugilist by nature. He is also a purist, which is a very dangerous combination in politics. As a purist, he is not willing to bend to meet the moment. As a pugilist, he savours the knockout punch in the ring, instead of looking at the long game.
At the very least, if Poilievre wants to send a message to his internal adversaries, he should use a surrogate. Most leaders keep their negative comments about colleagues to themselves, focusing instead on being the glue that keeps different factions of a party from coming apart.
If there is a public message that needs to be delivered, it should NEVER be coming from the lips of the leader. Instead, he should be taking the high road.
Poilievre’s Stampede sortie reignited an internal party fight that started back when Teneycke and others vocally attacked the leader’s “Trumpy” approach and his perceived alignment with the MAGA factions of the Republican Party.
Poilievre has definitely softened those edges. When it comes to criticism, he is making an effort to modify his pro-Trump approach.
But if he is ever going to form government, Poilievre needs to enlist the best and the brightest in his party. Instead, his public attacks have only served to weaken his position, as even ardent supporters are frustrated with his standing in the polls.
When the Toronto Sun’s Lilley attacks Poilievre, it underscores how deep the wounds in the party really area.
Poilievre needs a tourniquet, not a knife.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.