Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre faces a leadership review in January.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

In the last federal election, on April 28, the Conservative Party received 41.3 per cent of the popular vote, the highest level of public support for federal Conservatives since Brian Mulroney’s majority government victory of 1988, almost 40 years ago.

But the Liberals received 43.8 per cent of the vote on election day, profiting from the collapse of the NDP. Crucially, the Liberals took a majority of the seats in the so-called 905, the band of suburban ridings surrounding Toronto named after its first area code, along with suburban ridings surrounding Vancouver. That proved sufficient to form a strong minority government.

If Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is to prevail in the next federal election, he needs to take about one million suburban Ontario and B.C. voters away from the Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney.

To do that, he must convince those voters that he has more to offer than populist outrage.

© The Globe and Mail