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The Conservatives Keep Losing—and Turning Their Fire on Each Other

Instead of learning from defeat, Poilievre’s camp is consumed by internal feuds and purity tests

The Conservative Party of Canada has found its newest replacement for a strategy: punishment. Not of the Liberals, because they can’t seem to lay a glove on them. Not of Prime Minister Mark Carney, because he barely seems to notice them. Not of the people who actually designed, defended, and sold the campaign that lost.

No, the punishment is being aimed at other major Conservative figures. Doug Ford, Kory Teneycke, Dimitri Soudas, Fred DeLorey, and Caroline Elliott are being put through the grinder because the CPC still won’t do the one thing every serious party has to do after a loss: look at the leader, look at the circle around him, admit what failed, and change.

Full disclosure: I vote Conservative. Prior to this loss, I donated significantly to the federal Conservatives. I also vote Conservative provincially, donate generously, and have given a ton of my time during elections. The party doesn’t owe me anything for that. It was my choice. But I’m a conservative, and I’ll remain one if the party gets its act together. So far, it shows no sign of doing so.

To be brief, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre needed to show humility after the loss. He needed to learn some hard lessons about how and why the Liberals came out ahead. Instead, he doubled down on the idea that he was somehow the real election winner, even as members of Parliament started crossing the floor. He had an opportunity at that point to adjust, stem the tide, and keep the Liberals to a minority. He chose not to. Now they’re in majority territory, Carney’s approvals have soared, and Poilievre’s have sunk.

The CPC’s surprising new argument in this ongoing saga? Its losses are apparently now the reason it’s owed a win. Instead of coming up with a plan to actually win, the party has started treating defeat as a kind of political layaway program. We lost; therefore, we’re due. We failed; therefore, destiny owes us a correction. Every defeat is being reframed as one more step toward some inevitable victory that never seems to arrive.

It feels like each time people point out to the CPC how wildly sad this is getting, and how their numbers keep tanking because of it, they somehow manage to get even more unserious. Instead of taking stock, accepting the loss, taking responsibility for the floor crossings, and stopping this endless discussion about how to shape-shift their way into an eventual win, they say no thanks. No reflection. No humility. No course correction. Just another........

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