Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives missed their shot.
The party, only months ago, was considered the government-in-waiting, but fell short of the Liberals Monday, winning 146 seats to the Grits’ 167, according to the results available by 2 a.m. Tuesday.
It’s a blow to Poilievre, who has reportedly dreamt of becoming prime minister since his youth and saw former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s dwindling support in the fall as his golden ticket.
In a speech early Tuesday morning in Ottawa, he vowed to continue to hold the Liberal government to account.
“The promise that is made to me and to all of you is that anybody from anywhere could achieve anything through hard work. You can get a great life, get a nice, affordable home on a safe street. My purpose in politics is, and will continue to be, to restore that.”
“It will be an honour to continue to fight for you,” Poilievre added to chants of “bring it home.”
He described the Liberals’ win as a “razor-thin minority,” before congratulating Prime Minister Mark Carney on his campaign.
As of 2 a.m., the results were not yet in for Poilievre’s riding of Carleton, but Poilievre was trailing the Liberal candidate, Bruce Fanjoy, as the final polls were being counted.
That didn’t stop the CPC leader from celebrating with his supporters. A crowd of people wearing “Pierre for prime minister” sweatshirts and hats with the words “Canada First” emblazoned on the front waited until the early morning to hear him speak about the party’s accomplishments.
In his speech, Poilievre touted the many things the party had to celebrate, despite losing to the Liberals.
“Tonight, we gained well over 20 seats. We got the highest share vote our party has received since 1988,” he said.
“We know that change is needed, but change is hard to come by. It takes time.”
It was a hectic 37-day campaign, with the polls indicating a two-way race between the CPC and the Liberals from the get-go.
Poilievre was the strongest proponent for an early election. He spent most of the fall legislative session blocking government business from moving through the House and putting forward motions of non-confidence.
He had pledged to try to topple the government again when Parliament returned after the winter break, but instead, Justin Trudeau resigned, noting that “Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history.”
Carney called an election shortly after the Liberals chose him as Trudeau’s successor.
While Carney enjoyed a honeymoon period, the Conservatives struggled to gain ground in the polls. Some critics, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager, Kory Teneycke, criticized the Poilievre campaign for using messaging that was too similar to that of U.S. President Donald Trump.
