Canada opposition leader Poilievre wins seat, to take on Carney over tariffs
OTTAWA (Reuters) -The leader of Canada's official opposition Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, secured a return to Parliament and a chance to grill Prime Minister Mark Carney, staging a comeback after unexpectedly losing his seat in an April election.
Poilievre won 80.4% of the vote in a special election on Monday in the parliamentary constituency of Battle River-Crowfoot in the province of Alberta, a Conservative stronghold.
The sitting legislator stepped down to allow Poilievre to run in his seat, thereby allowing him to return to the House of Commons.
Poilievre, who accuses the Liberal government of botching its handling of U.S. relations and running up out-of-control deficits, will be able to confront Carney when the House of Commons returns on September 15.
Carney, who took over as prime minister in March, secured a strong minority government in April's federal election on a promise to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump. He has since moderated his approach even as Washington imposed more tariffs.
"The deficit is spiraling out of control, inflation is up, elbows are down," Poilievre told a victory rally. Carney offered his congratulations in a post on X.
Carney is in no immediate danger politically. Although the Liberals have a minority, they should be able to rely on the support of smaller parties to survive confidence votes.
A Nanos Research poll earlier this month put the Liberals at 44% popular support compared with 33% for the Conservatives.
Carney has pulled the Liberals more to the center and Poilievre will find it harder to draw a sharp contrast, said pollster Nik Nanos, CEO of Nanos Research.
"Poilievre needs to articulate what he learned from the last federal election and how his government would be different than a Carney government," he said via email.
At the start of the year the Conservatives looked set for a crushing election victory over the Liberals of then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who were far behind in polls after more than nine years in power.
But Liberal fortunes soared after Trudeau announced he was stepping down and Trump began threatening Canada with tariffs and annexation.
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'I have good friends over there and they are not coming over,' McPhee said of her St. Stephen pals, her voice thickening with emotion. She is 'embarrassed and heartbroken' by the Trump administration's provocations toward Canada, but feels powerless to do anything about it. Advertisement 'It's particularly hard for people on the border because we have more connections than people from, like, the Midwest,' she said. 'We see it, we feel it, we're sad about it.' At one point, a woman passing in a parade float spotted McPhee's sign and jumped down, running over to hug McPhee like a long lost friend, though they'd never met. 'Thank you for bringing the sign,' the woman said. In downtown Calais, the parade passed a table of laser art on birch and maple boards, by Bob Fitzsimmons, 61, a retired Baileyville chief of police. He, too, grew up in a blended family: A dad from Maine and a mom from New Brunswick. Baby Miss International Rylee Holmes took part in the festival in St. Stephen. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Dallas Murray (right) took a sip of water as he competed in Jo's Pizza Eating Contest during the festival (he'd place second). Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Fitzsimmons said he and his buddies, from both Calais and St. Stephen, talk border politics all the time. 'Some messages could be better said with sugar than a kick in the butt,' he said. 'We've been not only neighbors but families for generations. To have the US kick our friends and pull the rug out, it's disheartening.' Several Calais residents said they have noticed fewer Canadian license plates outside their bigger retailers, such as Walmart, where American and Canadian flags still hang from the ceiling inside. Local news organizations published stories this spring about the economic hit to Calais businesses. As the parade turned toward the river, it passed Jo's Diner & Pizzeria, one of the first businesses you encounter when crossing from Canada into the US. The restaurant's owner, Tim Crowe, emceed the International Festival's pizza-eating contest (medical personnel stood by in case it turned into a Heimlich-maneuver contest). Crowe has run the restaurant for about 16 years. He's cautious about saying anything disparaging that could offend a customer – people of all political persuasions and national allegiances buy pizza. Or at least they used to. He acknowledged business is down about 20 percent, due to Canadians staying on their side of the border. 'It gets worse depending on the news cycle,' he said. Pizza sales fall when harsh words are exchanged between Washington and Ottawa. When the rhetoric calms down, the numbers begin to tick back up, as Crowe waits nervously for the next clash. He just has to watch the morning news to anticipate the effect on his business. 'I think the only people who are experiencing this are the border towns.' On the St. Stephen side of the border, the parade floats traveled parallel to the river for more than half a kilometer, past a sports bar with a wall mural of Boston Bruins general manager and former player Don Sweeney, the pride of St. Stephen. (Sweeney recalls attending the International Festival with family throughout his childhood, he said through a Bruins spokesman.) Tracey Matheson, of St. Stephen, said she is among those who no longer cross the border to shop. 'It sucks because we like our deals over there,' she said. She empathizes with Calais business owners, but how else can ordinary Canadians take a stand against American government policy? 'What you're doing is wrong and there has to be consequences. 'We're Canadians,' she said, 'we love everybody, but don't [expletive] with us.' After the curse word slipped out, she covered her mouth with a hand. 'Oooo! I mean don't mess with us.' Throughout Canada, companies are trying to cash in on the wave of nationalistic feelings, pushing their Made-in-Canada bona fides, said JP Lewis, a professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. It's already proving to be effective. The CEO of the big-box retailer The Canadian government, Lewis said, is also encouraging Canadians to keep their money at home by reducing trade barriers between provinces. On Aug. 1, the toll on the Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island was slashed from $50.25 to $20, making it cheaper for Canadians to enjoy their own Atlantic coast, rather than vacationing in the US. The American side is feeling the squeeze. Last year, some 800,000 Canadian visitors spent almost $500 million in Maine, according to the state's Office of Tourism. Governor Janet Mills People on the Canadian banks of the St. Croix River watched fireworks shot off from the Maine side. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Vicki Hogarth, a Canadian journalist covering the festival with CHCO-TV, a community television station in nearby St. Andrews, New Brunswick, said that the conflicts with the Trump administration are a coming-of-age moment for a country that has long been cast as understudy to the US star on the world stage. 'Before this we didn't really have the best idea of a Canadian identity,' she said. 'When you have these moments when you're being threatened, it was impressive that we could rise to the occasion. It is a really interesting moment to be a Canadian.' Around the corner from the Don Sweeney mural, 33-year-old Michael Jacobs helped staff the welcome tent for Canada's Liberal Party, which rode anti-Trump sentiments to an election victory in the spring. 'President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us,' Prime Minister Mark Carney said in his victory speech. 'That will never ... ever happen.' To Jacobs, who grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, about 90 minutes north of St. Stephen, it's all quite sad. 'Atlantic Canadians and New Englanders are so similar,' he said. He recalled his many vacations to the US – to Camden, Maine, Bar Harbor, and Boston. 'Every year our back-to-school shopping trip was to Freeport' – the Maine outlet store haven. 'I can't wait to go back to New England. We love America. We love visiting.' Just not right now. Out of principle and national pride, Jacobs said he won't cross the border until a new US president is in office. 'The alternative,' he said, 'is me giving tacit permission' for Trump's policies. 'Any Canadian who grew up along the border has fond memories of going to the US, and we look forward to making more memories – when the time is right.' Mark Arsenault can be reached at
