Image from @spaikin on Twitter.
A new challenger has emerged: Pierre Poilievre secured the leadership of the opposition Conservative Party with a landslide victory over the weekend.
Why it matters: Poilievre nabbed a commanding 68% of the points available on the first ballot, cementing his control over the party and setting up a showdown with the governing Liberals in the next election.
- Runner-up Jean Charest received just 16% of the points allocated through the party’s preferential ballot voting system.
Catch up: Poilievre is the third leader of the Conservative Party since 2015 when Justin Trudeau defeated Stephen Harper.
- Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole were both booted from the leadership post after losing elections to the Trudeau Liberals.
Poilievre built a committed following during the campaign, partially through the effective use of videos on social media that regularly racked up hundreds of thousands of views and dwarfed his rivals' efforts.
- During the campaign, Poilievre promised to lower taxes, cut funding for cities that fail to build more housing, eliminate the carbon tax, and build more pipelines.
- He also made some more unconventional commitments, including pledges to fire Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and embrace cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance.
What’s next: The next election is slated for 2025, but could come sooner if either the Liberals or NDP decide to abandon their deal to preserve the current government until then.
With Prime Minister Trudeau reportedly planning to stick around and try for a fourth consecutive victory (something only achieved twice in Canadian history), the stage is set for the next federal campaign.