Conservative delegates in Calgary voted 87.4 per cent to keep Pierre Poilievre as party leader in a mandatory leadership review announced on January 31, 2026. The result, following the Conservatives’ April 2025 election defeat to Mark Carney’s Liberals, confirmed Poilievre will lead the party into the next federal election.
A decisive result in Calgary
Pierre Poilievre’s hold on the Conservative Party was cemented at the party’s three-day national convention in Calgary, where delegates voted in a mandatory leadership review triggered by last April’s federal election loss. The result, announced in the early hours of Saturday, January 31, gave Poilievre 87.4 per cent support — a number party officials moved quickly to describe as a show of unity.
The figure carries a pointed historical comparison. The last time the Conservatives held such a vote was in 2005, when Stephen Harper — who went on to win three elections and govern for nearly a decade — secured 84 per cent. Former Harper advisers had suggested beforehand that clearing 75 per cent would demonstrate the party’s confidence, and Poilievre comfortably passed that bar.
“A united Conservative party has come out of this weekend, telling Canadians that we are ready to govern and fix the problems that the Liberals have created over the last decade,” said Damien Kurek, the former Alberta MP who stepped aside last spring so Poilievre could return to the House of Commons through a byelection.
A speech built on hope
The vote followed a keynote address of more than 45 minutes on Friday evening, delivered to a packed ballroom at the BMO convention centre under banners reading “real change” and “choose hope.” Poilievre promised delegates he would not give up, and asked for another chance to lead the party into an election.
“Hope is the knowledge that your work will fulfil your purpose,” he said, becoming emotional as he spoke about time away from his young family and his hope that his daughter Valentina, who has autism, will one day speak for the first time.
Poilievre argued the Conservatives “won the debate” in the last campaign on crime, immigration, housing and taxation. He presented his party as the party of workers, including unionized workers, small business owners and young people, and he called for an American-style “castle law” allowing people to use force to protect their property. In an unusual admission, he acknowledged a tactical error: riding associations should have been allowed to hold open nominations earlier, after complaints that his team hand-picked candidates in the spring campaign.
Notably, Poilievre never mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump by name, even as he offered to support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to remove U.S. tariffs and diversify Canada’s trade. “In this dangerous and uncertain world, Canadians must stand united so we can stand on our own two feet,” he said. “United and strong Canadians will bow before no nation anywhere on earth.”
The hard part starts now
The convention result settles the leadership question inside the party, but it does not settle Poilievre’s larger problem. In April, he lost the election and his own Ottawa-area seat, and his party blew a lead of more than 20 points after Trump’s annexation threats rallied Canadians behind Carney. Two Conservative MPs have since crossed the floor to the Liberals, leaving Carney’s government one seat short of a majority.
Polling underlines the gap between the party room and the country. Angus Reid polling cited by Reuters put Carney’s approval at 60 per cent, while 58 per cent of Canadians held an unfavourable view of Poilievre — even as about 80 per cent of Conservative voters backed him. Inside the hall, supporters brushed that off. “It was not only a vote for Pierre, but a real vote for the party and party unity,” one delegate said, while Ontario MP Costas Menegakis insisted “the Liberals have tried to sow division in our party for months now.”
Ian Brodie, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said Poilievre did what he needed to do to turn the page on a difficult year. The next test is less forgiving: converting an 87.4 per cent endorsement from his own delegates into support from the much larger group of Canadians who, so far, have not been persuaded.
