Pierre Poilievre

Pierre Poilievre (born June 3, 1979, Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is a Canadian politician serving as the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party. Poilievre has sometimes been compared to U.S. Pres. Donald Trump for his populist politics and his acerbic and confrontational style.

Early life and education

Poilievre and his biological half brother, Patrick, were adopted by Marlene and Don Poilievre, both schoolteachers. Pierre Poilievre grew up in Calgary, playing sports such as hockey, football, and wrestling. He was raised in the Roman Catholic Church but has made little mention of his faith in speeches as an adult. His parents divorced when he was about 12 years old. One of his earliest exposures to politics was joining his mother at a Progressive Conservative meeting.

He received a degree in international relations (2008) from the University of Calgary, where he was president of the college Conservative club. While there he won a $10,000 prize and a meeting with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, of the Liberal Party, for an essay on what he would do if he ever became the country’s leader himself. In it Poilievre stressed freedom and low taxes—two cornerstones of his philosophy as a politician.

Election to Parliament

In 2004, at the age of 25, Poilievre was elected to the House of Commons, representing the Carleton district in Ottawa. He quickly drew a following with his pugnacious debating style, and his ascent through the Conservative ranks was rapid. The Conservative Party took power in 2006, and within two years Poilievre had been named parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He continued his rise, earning an appointment to Harper’s cabinet, first as minister of democratic reform (2013–15) and then as employment minister (2015). In 2017 he married Anaida Galindo; they have two children.

Elevation to Conservative Party leader

Poilievre was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2022, after championing a “Freedom Convoy” of truck drivers who had converged in Ottawa to rail against COVID-19 lockdowns. Along the way his playbook included attacking both the media and Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In April 2024 Speaker Greg Fergus ejected Poilievre from Parliament for the day after he called Trudeau “this wacko prime minister” for supporting a “wacko policy”; namely, British Columbia’s decriminalization of possession of small amounts of some hard drugs in an attempt to reduce overdose-related deaths. Before removing Poilievre, Fergus requested that he withdraw the comment, deeming it “unparliamentary language.” Poilievre offered to replace “wacko” with “extremist” or “radical,” and the rest of the Conservative caucus ultimately followed their leader out.

Trudeau’s support had been in decline for some years, and the termination of a confidence-and-supply agreement with the New Democratic Party in September 2024 had left his minority government on the verge of collapse. With elections scheduled to be held before October 2025, the Conservatives held a commanding lead in public polling, an advantage that became more pronounced in December 2024 after the resignation of Trudeau’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland. Freeland had expressed doubts about Trudeau’s ability to handle Trump, who had vowed to enact a stunning 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods upon his return to the U.S. presidency in January 2025.

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With Liberal support in free fall and allies calling upon Trudeau to step down, on January 6, 2025, Trudeau announced his resignation. At this point, polling suggested a near-certain landslide victory for the Conservatives, and Parliament’s first act when it returns to session in March will be a vote of confidence in the Liberal government. Although a majority of Canadians expressed an unfavorable view of Poilievre, he seems poised to become Canada’s next prime minister.