Former Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay isn’t pointing the finger at Pierre Poilievre for the party’s loss in last week’s federal election, but he does think members of his team need to go and that the party itself needs “fine-tuning.”
MacKay, who served multiple roles under former prime minister Stephen Harper and ran against Poilievre for the party leadership in 2022, says “difficult” and sometimes “painful” conversations will be had on what went wrong for the Conservatives.
While he says tensions exist within the party and with some provinces, MacKay doesn’t believe that’s what led to a fourth Liberal mandate.
“I don’t think it’s indicative of a party in crisis — it’s indicative of a party that’s in need of some fine-tuning, perhaps some policy and communications adjustments,” he told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.
“The results do, to a large degree, speak for themselves: increased seat count, increased overall vote total, and I think policies that were very appealing to millions of Canadians.”
The Conservatives increased their vote share to 41.3 per cent, with over eight million ballots cast, and flipped several ridings to form the largest Official Opposition in Canadian history, with a projected 144 seats.
Despite all that, the Liberals still managed to win a stronger minority government — 168 seats compared to the 160 seats won in the 2021 election, and 157 in 2019 — as well as the popular vote for the first time since 2015, when they won a majority with 184 seats.
Poilievre himself lost the Ottawa-area riding he held for 20 years, and will now have to run in a future byelection in Alberta to get back into Parliament and serve again as the Leader of the Opposition, which under procedural rules is tied to the caucus, not his role as Conservative Party leader.
“To become the Leader of the Opposition, a person must hold a seat in the House of Commons,” the House of Commons rules state.
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The results were a blow to the party that had been enjoying a double-digit polling lead over the Liberals mere months ago — an opportunity MacKay said was not “squandered,” but rather “watered down as a result of things that went beyond the control of the party and the leader.”
While many other Conservatives have defended Poilievre, others — notably Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston — have criticized the way Poilievre and his team ran the campaign.
Houston last week told reporters that Conservatives need to do some “soul searching.”
MacKay acknowledged it was a “mistake” and a “miscalculation” for the federal party to bar its candidates from participating in the recent Ontario and Nova Scotia provincial campaigns, which led to strong majorities for both Ford and Houston, respectively.
“I really do believe that has caused some of this ongoing problem, particularly in Ontario,” he said. “But provincially in Nova Scotia, it really isn’t an issue. People have moved on quickly beyond this.”
MacKay, who is based in Nova Scotia, pointed to collaboration between Houston’s team and the federal Conservative campaign, as well as the increased votes for the party in Atlantic Canada overall, as proof the reports of tensions are “overblown.”
He added that some members of the federal campaign leadership team will likely “move on” to “remove the thorn, if you will, from some of this real or perceived tension.”
Asked if he thinks Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne should be one of the people who moves on, MacKay responded: “Yes I do.”
Critics have said Poilievre and his team didn’t pivot fast enough to focus on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats on Canada’s economy and sovereignty, an issue that polling found the Liberals were overwhelmingly favoured to address.
Poilievre instead continued focusing on issues of crime and affordability, which was overall the top election issue identified by voters — particularly younger Canadians — and which Conservatives were narrowly seen as the best party for.
MacKay praised Poilievre’s handling of economic policy and “broad appeal” to unionized workers, many of whom abandoned the NDP for the Conservatives in this election. He said that focus should continue, along with the party’s modern stance on immigration and outreach to young people, under Poilievre’s leadership.
“He needs to be in the House,” MacKay said of Poilievre. “He needs to lead the Conservative Party from the front of the House of Commons.”
On other issues, MacKay continued, the party needs to “push those tent pegs out a little further” and “take away any of the perceived edginess or exclusionary elements” on what he called “rights issues.”
“This is a party that has always been, in my estimation, inclusive to women, minorities, people of faith,” he said. “We have to continue to burnish those credentials.”
Back in 2003, MacKay was one of the leaders who helped form the modern-day Conservative Party by bringing together the Progressive Conservatives in the east and the more right-wing Reform and Canadian Alliance factions from western Canada.
Harper led the new Conservatives to government just three years later, with both MacKay and Poilievre serving in his cabinet over the next nine years.
With talk of western separatism growing again after the Conservatives’ fourth straight loss, and moderates blaming those western factions for pushing the party rightward, MacKay said the infighting won’t help the Conservatives recover and win next time.
“I don’t think as a party the Conservative movement faces the same sort of fractious debates that were there in the past,” he said. “People are quite motivated — disappointed, in some cases angry — but the focus is still there.
“We do need to, of course, coalesce after a very bruising election, But it’s not helpful, nor do I believe it productive, to sort of try to blame one aspect or one branch of the party for what happened.”
