The Trump-like Canadian who plans to take down Trudeau

Pierre Poilievre is riding high in the polls, as Justin Trudeau is shunned by colleagues and mercilessly mocked by the US president-elect.

Waiting in the wings, Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has built a following among disaffected blue-collar voters. Picture: AFP

At the WoodSource timber yard outside Manotick, a suburb of Canada’s capital, staff and customers long to see the back of Justin Trudeau. “Something’s got to give - I can’t afford groceries, I can’t afford gas,” said Philip Scott, 27, a warehouse manager who is married with two small children.

Many young and working-class Canadians have long blamed the prime minister for soaring inflation and perceived political chaos. They are increasingly looking to his rival, the conservative Pierre Poilievre, a career politician who has artfully rebranded himself as a working-class hero, to fix Canada’s woes.

“Our country needs change and I think he could be that change,” Scott added. “We can’t keep going the way we are.”

Last week, Trudeau faced one of the greatest challenges to his premiership. His finance minister and longstanding ally resigned in a row over how to tackle tariffs proposed by US president-elect Donald Trump - leading to calls for Trudeau to step down.

Waiting in the wings, Poilievre, 45, has built a following among disaffected blue-collar voters who are now the backbone of his conservative coalition that looks likely to win in next October’s election.

However, his appeal among anti-elite Canadians frustrated with Trudeau’s almost decade-long leadership began with a risky gambit. As Canadian truckers occupied central Ottawa in January 2022 protesting against Covid vaccine mandates, Poilievre - then a little-known young conservative - went to greet them.

While politicians of all stripes condemned the “Freedom Convoy” that had brought the capital to a standstill, Poilievre met the truckers with doughnuts. “Just talked with hundreds of cheerful, peaceful, salt-of-the-earth, give-you-the-shirt-off-their-back Canadians at the trucker protest,” he tweeted.

Just talked with hundreds of cheerful, peaceful, salt-of-the-earth, give-you-the-shirt-off-their-back Canadians at the trucker protest.

They choose freedom over fear. pic.twitter.com/vfxOAkThu5

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 31, 2022

Within days, banners declaring “Poilievre for PM” had appeared among the convoy and he announced his bid for leadership of the Conservative Party.

The decision to side with the truckers paid off. He tapped into a frustration among Canadians hobbled first by the pandemic and then by inflation and a property boom that has priced millions out of the housing market. Homelessness and violent crime have become more visible. Canada’s health system and public services are under strain amid surging immigration. Once proud of their reputation for welcoming migrants, many Canadians have grown weary of new arrivals as the “Canadian dream” promised by Trudeau recedes from view. Jack Bourdeau, a 64-year-old carpenter, said: “When you have military veterans sleeping on the streets, and these people are getting handouts as they come in, that’s just wrong and it’s killed the economy.”

The ‘Canadian dream’ promised by Trudeau is receding from view. Picture: AFP

Poilievre has cast Trudeau as out of touch, and fixated with policies - such as gun control and his carbon tax - that no longer resonate.

The polls suggest Poilievre’s narrative is prevailing. Abacus Data, a research firm, recently asked voters to compare Trudeau and his rival. Asked who would be better at hosting a party, voters chose Trudeau by 20 points. When asked who would be better at putting out a kitchen fire, they picked Poilievre by the same margin. “In 2015, when Trudeau won, I think Canadians were looking for a party,” said David Coletto, who runs Abacus Data. “Today, most Canadians think the kitchen’s on fire and they’re looking for somebody to put it out. They just want somebody who’s going to fix things.”

Born to a teenage single mother and adopted by French-speaking parents, Poilievre is a lifelong conservative. He was brought up in Calgary, in the conservative, rural state of Alberta, where he has since attended rodeos on horseback with his Venezuelan-born wife Anaida.

As a university student in 1999, he won a $16,000 essay contest on what he would do if he became prime minister. The manifesto, which stressed the importance of freedom, small government and a populist, low-tax agenda, is similar to his conservative platform 25 years on.

Poilievre’s populist style and disdain for the mainstream media have drawn comparisons with Donald Trump. He was ejected from parliament this year for calling Trudeau a “wacko”. The prime minister has dismissed his rival as “Trump-lite”. Like the American president-elect, Poilievre is fond of summing up political messages with a catchy slogan. He has called for the repeal of the carbon tax - “Axe the tax” - and blamed the high cost of living on “Justinflation”. Poilievre has vowed to put “Canada first” if he assumes the premiership and supported a ban on transgender girls in women’s sport.

Although he avoids Trump’s incendiary rhetoric on migration, Poilievre is hawkish on border control. “I will take back control,” he said last week.

Trudeau has endured a torrid month. At the heart of the crisis is Trump, who has threatened Canada with 25 per cent tariffs unless Trudeau cracks down on the flow of drugs and illegal migrants into the US. The prime minister flew to Mar-a-Lago in an attempt to defuse the row. Over dinner, however, Trump toyed with his guest, suggesting that Canada should simply submit to becoming “America’s 51st state”. The president-elect has continued mocking Trudeau on social media since their meeting, taunting him as the “governor” of the “great state of Canada” and posting maps of Canada assimilated into the US. Trump’s trolling has precipitated a crisis for Trudeau at home. His finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from the cabinet last week.

In a damning resignation letter, Freeland accused Trudeau of failing to take the threat of a trade war with Trump seriously, preferring “costly political gimmicks” that Canada can “ill afford”.

Donald Trump hosted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago, with the pair discussing the tariff row. Picture: X@JustinTrudeau

Patience within Trudeau’s party has snapped. Even MPs who previously backed the prime minister are now in open mutiny, pleading with him to step aside before the election. Trudeau’s decision to replace Freeland with his confidante - and former babysitter - Dominic LeBlanc, has only cemented the view that the prime minister has lost touch with the party and voters. Poilievre has denounced the turmoil as a “clown show”, urging Trudeau to call a snap election.

A poll last week found that 34 per cent of Canadians feel that Poilievre is the best leader to deal with Trump, compared with 22 per cent for Trudeau. When Poilievre won the Conservative leadership in 2022, his party was tied with Trudeau’s Liberals. Today, the Tories lead by 20 points, their strongest poll numbers since the late 1980s.

In the bars near Parliament Hill in Ottawa this week, the knives are out for the prime minister. “He’s toast,” one parliamentary insider said of Trudeau. “He’s so weak, and Trump can smell it.”

Of the man poised to become Canada’s next leader, views were mixed. Insiders variously described him as “really talented”, “very ambitious” and a “bit of a bully”.

In an interview on Friday, Poilievre addressed Trump directly, declaring that he had the “brains and backbone” to rebuild Trump’s fraught relationship with Canada with a shared “warrior culture, not a woke culture”.

“Mr President, I know what you want. You want your northern flank secure,” he said.

The Times