Bill Donaldson, his campaign manager from 2004, recalls that Poilievre had a knack for getting people excited even then
Bill Donaldson, his campaign manager from 2004, recalls that Poilievre had a knack for getting people excited even then
Bill Donaldson, his campaign manager from 2004, recalls that Poilievre had a knack for getting people excited even then
OTTAWA — As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sets off on the biggest fight of his political career, he began by reminiscing about his first.
Standing on a platform surrounded by volunteers and candidates in his Ottawa-area riding of Carleton on Sunday, Poilievre recalled the former location of his first campaign office when he was successfully elected as a member of Parliament back in 2004.
“Remember they said we had no chance?” the 45-year-old said. “We were the underdogs, but we got into it then for the very same reason we’re in it now. We’re here to bring home Canada’s promise.”
With public opinion polls showing Conservatives locked in a dead heat with the incumbent Liberals after the departure of Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war collapsing the party’s nearly 20-point lead, Conservative supporters are counting on Poilievre to apply the same energy, ambition and skill over the next 36-day campaign as he did when he was a fresh-faced twenty-something in his first race.
Bill Donaldson, his campaign manager from that 2004 contest, recalls he had a knack for getting people excited even then.
Before taking the role, Donaldson had only met Poilievre briefly, first at a convention for the Reform Party, which later merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the current Conservative party, and later when Poilievre turned up on his doorstep as he was campaigning for the party’s nomination.
“We had six people vying for the leadership, and one of them was this gangly youth called Pierre Poilievre,” he told National Post in an interview
“People didn’t know how to pronounce his name,” Donaldson said. “He was new, and he didn’t look 23, he looked 20, maybe 19.”
What Donaldson remembers most about his nomination win was that he was the only candidate to bring supporters to their feet.
“I wouldn’t call him anywhere at the time a polished speech maker, or speaker, but he managed to enthuse about half that hall into standing up and clapping.”
Poilievre enters Canada’s 45th election pitching himself as the leader representing change after nearly a decade of Liberal rule, calling the preceding years the “lost decade.”
While newly elected Liberal Leader Mark Carney is his main opponent, Poilievre is being forced to navigate a campaign where Trump’s tariffs threat and the president’s comments around wanting Canada to become a state loom large.
It comes after having spent the past two years championing cost-of-living issues and preparing to fight what he called a “carbon tax election.”
Following a deliberate message shift, Poilievre is now trying to thread the needle between voters’ fears about threats from the U.S., while tying it back to the economic situation Canada finds itself.
Before his stop in Ottawa on the day the election kicked off Sunday, Poilievre appeared at the Museum of History across the river from Parliament Hill, where he said he shares the anger and anxiety Canadians feel under Trump.
“I respect the office of the President of the United States and we have to show respect to other world leaders,” Poilievre said, when asked whether he respects him.
Given the two countries’ trading relationship and the fact Trump will be in office for the next four years, he said Canada’s next prime minister will have to work with him.
“You can be respectful and firm, and I believe we have to be both. I will insist the president recognize the independence and sovereignty of Canada. I will insist that he stop tariffing our nation.”
“At the same time,” Poilievre says, “I will strengthen our country so that we can be capable of standing (on) our own two feet and standing up to the Americans, where and when necessary. That’s what it means when I say let’s put Canada first for a change.”
Carney wasted no time on Sunday arguing Poilievre was stealing his policy ideas from Trump’s administration, as he stood in front of Rideau Hall, having just asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, triggering an election set for April 28.
The Liberals have spent years trying to plant the seed with voters of Poilievre being Trump-like, taking particular aim at his aggressive political style, both in Parliament and when dealing with media.
Appearing at his campaign launches on Sunday, Poilievre was all smiles, waving for the cameras, accompanied by his wife, Ana, and their two children, Valentina and Cruz.
Poilievre also made a point during his speeches to introduce himself to Canadians by speaking about his upbringing, recounting how he was raised by two schoolteachers after being put up for adoption by a 16-year-old single mother.
Those “humble beginnings” gave him a sense of why Canada is special, Poilievre said at his event in Gatineau.
As far as political beginnings go, Gatineau is where Poilievre lived when he arrived on Parliament Hill two decades ago to work as a staffer before taking a shot at elected politics, coming to Ottawa from Calgary where he got his first taste in politics as a teenager.
Donaldson recalls Poilievre’s stamina as a rookie candidate when it came to door knocking.
“He had a really good way with people.”
Not only would he stay out until 11:30 p.m., hollering at people in an apartment block on their balconies, there was one day he turned up on doorsteps sopping wet from the rain — a state that earned the young candidate an invite inside to warm up with tea.
“He was athletic and long-legged, and he could jump over driveways without touching a blade of grass. It was like an antelope. I got tired just watching him stand still sometimes,” Donaldson said.
In terms of lessons from that first campaign, Donaldson said Poilievre learned the importance of appreciating volunteers. The first group he ever had would go on to throw him a birthday party, he said.
During that race itself, Donaldson said he advised Poilievre against his instincts of wanting to attack his opponent at the time, former Liberal cabinet minister David Pratt, who was well-liked in the riding.
Poilievre appears to be heeding similar advice for his current campaign, given his sparse mention of Carney on Sunday and in recent public announcements.
Since Poilievre became party leader in 2022, Donaldson said he has attended three of his rallies and the pair still greet each other warmly.
When he watches him now, he sees in him about “90 per cent” of the candidate from that first race.
“Definitely more mature, a little more laid back. Careful.”
National Post, with files from Stuart Thomson
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.