Pierre Poilievre

Pierre Marcel Poilievre (born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has been the leader of the Conservative Party since 2022. He previously served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Carleton from 2004 to 2025 and as the leader of the Opposition from 2022 to 2025.

Poilievre was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, and moved to Ottawa in 2000 to work for Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day. He was first elected in the 2004 federal election, initially representing the riding of Nepean—Carleton before it was reconfigured as Carleton. In 2008, Poilievre graduated with a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Calgary. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he held various parliamentary secretary roles from 2006 to 2013 before serving as minister for democratic reform from 2013 to 2015 and concurrently as minister of employment and social development in 2015. From 2017 to 2022, he was the Conservative Party’s shadow minister for finance and was briefly shadow minister for jobs and industry.

Poilievre ran in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, winning a landslide on the first ballot. Described as a populist, he has primarily focused on economic issues, especially the cost of living in Canada and arguing for the repeal of the federal carbon tax. Poilievre is considered to be part of the Blue Tory faction within the Conservative Party.

In the 2025 Canadian federal election, Poilievre lost his seat of Carleton to Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy, while the Conservatives under Poilievre increased their seat total from 120 to 144 seats and achieved the highest popular vote share since the party's founding in 2003. However, the election resulted in a Liberal minority government. Poilievre is expected to run in the Conservative-safe riding of Battle River—Crowfoot, Alberta, in an upcoming by-election, after incumbent party MP Damien Kurek announced his intention to resign his seat. This would allow Poilievre to regain a seat in the House of Commons.