Who is Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader on track to become Canada’s next prime minister?

Pierre Poilievre, the man most likely to become Canada’s next leader, has described his country as “broken” and full of “crime and chaos.” He has mocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an “idiot” and his ministers as “crazy,” “disastrous” and “incompetent and discredited.”

In Parliament he is Named Left-wing opposition leader and former Trudeau supporter is a “fake, phony, fraud” and “traitor.” The angry leader stood up from his seat, walked down the aisle, and shouted: “I’m here.” , brother.”

“Do it,” Mr. Poilievre responded as the Speaker of the House struggled to restore calm, calling on lawmakers to respect “the rules we have.”

Mr. Poilievre, 45, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, has stretched the norm in Canadian political discourse with a combative, attack-driven style and an anti-elite populist message that has been described as nativist by supporters and Trumpian by critics.

It’s worked so far.

Over the past year, Mr. Poilievre and his party have enjoyed a double-digit lead in opinion polls over Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal Party. If the polls are to be believed, Mr. Poilievre will emerge as the next prime minister in a general election that must be held by October but is likely to be held in the spring after Mr. Trudeau announced on Monday that he would resign as party leader and prime minister. Minister once his party decides who will succeed him.

A career politician long known as a ferocious attack dog for his party, with an instinctive sense of what topics resonate with voters, Mr. Poilievre successfully bashed the unpopular Mr. Trudeau last year and made him appear out of touch with reality.

Mr. Poilievre has led the country’s political agenda by cherry-picking issues — housing costs, inflation, immigration — that, according to many Canadians, Mr. Trudeau’s government has underestimated or mishandled.

But at a news conference announcing his resignation, Mr. Trudeau said that “Mr. Poilievre’s vision for this country is not the right vision for Canadians,” adding that the opposition leader did not offer “an ambitious, optimistic vision for the future.”

It remains unclear whether Mr. Poilievre will be able to hold onto his lead in the polls, or even build on it, as voters come to know him better. In the coming months, the Liberal Party’s selection of a successor may increase the party’s popularity. Mr. Poilievre, who becomes Conservative leader in 2022, will have to campaign on his own agenda to win over mainstream voters.

“He will be very different from any other prime minister we have had,” said Duane Pratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. “He was very combative, and had been so all his life. That’s great as an opposition leader, and even as a minister of state. But can he do that as prime minister?”

Like other populist leaders, Poilievre tapped into voters’ post-pandemic frustrations over rising costs of living, unaffordable housing, and what seemed to many like an arrogant Trudeau government that made big decisions — like increasing immigration to historic levels or imposing a carbon tax. Tax – without much explanation or consultation.

Three years ago, Mr. Poilievre was one of the few politicians to publicly support truck drivers who paralyzed downtown Ottawa for weeks to protest vaccine mandates.

“He’s channeled anti-elitism in Canada,” said Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “He’s populist, he’s anti-establishment. That’s a big part of his message.”

Mr. Poilievre has promoted a traditional conservative message of personal freedom, small government, low taxes, tough on crime and lax regulation of the Canadian oil industry.

But he linked his message to attacks on “global elites in Davos,” threatening to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada, embracing cryptocurrencies and attacking the mainstream media, especially the public broadcaster CBC, which he pledged to stop funding.

“The problem we have in this country and in all the countries that have been plagued by this horrific utopian awakening is that it has focused on the greatness, the greatness of the leadership of the selfish figures at the top, and not on the things that Mr. Poilievre recently said are great and great for the common people.” interview With Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist and conservative social media star.

“This is another reason why I think we are doing very well,” Mr. Poilievre added. “People are saying, finally, there is someone focused on letting me take back control of my own life.”

Elon Musk, billionaire and one of the most influential supporters of President-elect Donald J. Trump, He said “Great interview” about Mr. Poilievre’s appearance on Mr. Peterson’s podcast. Mr. Musk appeared to embrace Mr. Poilievre even as he continued to belittle Mr. Trudeau.

“Girl, you’re not the governor of Canada anymore, so it doesn’t matter what you say,” Mr. Musk said. to publish on social media after Mr. Trudeau said there wasn’t “a big chance in hell” that Canada would become part of the United States, as Mr. Trump suggested.

In his personal life, Mr. Poilievre could not be more different from Mr. Trudeau, who grew up in the prime minister’s official residence as the son of Pierre Trudeau, who led Canada for nearly 16 years and helped define Canada’s modern identity. In Ottawa.

In an apparent attempt to emphasize his humble origins, Mr. Poilievre often told the story of how he was born in Calgary to a 16-year-old mother and then given up for adoption. His adoptive parents were teachers, and they divorced when he was 12, after which his father announced that he was gay.

When he was elected leader of the Conservative Party by a landslide in 2022, he greeted his biological mother, his adoptive parents and his father’s long-term partner, all of whom were in the audience.

“We are a complex, mixed group, like most families, like our country,” said Mr. Poilievre, who supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Mr. Poilievre has two young children with his wife, Anaida Galindo, a former Senate aide whom he met in Ottawa. Ms. Poilievre was born in Venezuela but grew up with her family in Montreal. Her husband often pointed to the benefits of immigration, citing Ms. Poilievre’s family as an example, saying they came to Canada “with almost nothing” and “like many immigrant families, they built our country.”

Mr. Poilievre has been involved in Calgary’s Conservative politics since his early teens, becoming the youngest Member of Parliament when he was elected in 2004 at the age of 25. He quickly rose through the ranks, impressing older politicians with his hard work, acumen, and fighting spirit. , and earned the nickname “Skippy”.

He tried to shed the image evoked by the nickname with a radical change in the summer of 2023. He ditched the navy blue suits and ties and began appearing in public in jeans and sometimes tight T-shirts. He ditched his square glasses for contact lenses and aviation sunglasses.

“He’s transformed his own image from this nerdy little guy who wears glasses and frowns all the time into this kind of Bitcoin that appeals to young voters and male voters,” said Ms. Turnbull, the political scientist.

Mr Poilievre said in the interview with Mr Peterson that he had become “tougher” since becoming Conservative leader and was ready to become prime minister.

“It’s personal for me,” he added. “I don’t come from a privileged or wealthy background. I was adopted by schoolteachers, and grew up in a regular suburban neighborhood. We didn’t always have money. But I made it here.”