When Pierre Poilievre went on stage to deliver his keynote address at the Conservative Party’s convention on Friday night, he hadn’t yet faced the leadership review vote. The odds were high that he’d win it handily, which he later did, securing 87.4 percent support. But in the lead-up to the convention, experts widely agreed that his real tests—winning over more Canadians, setting himself apart from both Prime Minister Mark Carney and United States president Donald Trump—were yet to come. And the keynote would help signal how he planned to tackle them.

So, what does his speech say about his strategy? Reporter Claire Porter Robbins reached out to Sam Routley, a doctoral candidate at Western University, whose research focuses on centre-right and conservative politics, to break it all down. This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What were you looking for in Poilievre’s speech?

Nothing really came as a surprise. It was more of a campaign speech. He needed to come across as more serious, have a stance on Canada’s place in the world: how it will secure prosperity and get into a good economic position if we’re going into an era where we can’t rely on the US. He spent a little bit of time criticizing Carney, but also offering solutions, like pipelines and home building as an engine for economic growth. But other than that, it was pretty conventional.

How would you characterize his........

© The Walrus