Campaign mistakes were made, but none that 'changed the outcome,' says top Conservative operative

Calgary Herald

08-08-2025

But she was far from alone on the team, Byrne told Segal.
'If they think that like I was like a one-person machine who was making every decision, ran the campaign by myself like I was some Rasputin or Svengali, then they don't know how campaigns are run. They don't know Pierre, they don't know senior-level people that we had in the campaign,' she argued.
'Some would say I'm aggressive. I actually don't think I'm that aggressive, or at least, I've mellowed in my older years,' she also said.
Asked about Byrne's statement in confidence, two former campaign operatives scoffed.
After holding key roles in the 2011, 2015 and 2025 federal elections, Byrne said she's taking a step back from a top official role come the next national campaign.
The current advisor to Poilievre said that someone else will run the next Conservative campaign and she had no idea who that would be.
'I speak to people on a daily basis, and I'm going to… continue to do that. But I've stepped back from the day to day and and I'm not going to run the next campaign,' she said.
She also sounded surprised by the amount of attention she's received as campaign director since the election.
'I do find it strange or perplexing that in all the years that I've been involved in politics, I've never seen post-campaign analysis focused on a campaign manager as much as what it has on me.'
Poilievre may have attracted thousands at his campaign rallies — a fact he frequently flaunted during the campaign — that's not where Byrne was most comfortable.
In fact, Byrne said she doesn't like large gatherings all that much personally.
'I think I'm actually, on a personal level, pretty much of a homebody. I don't like going out in crowds. I can count on one hand in the last five years how many receptions that I've been to,' she said.
But one thing she does like is the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, which may come as a surprise for someone who grew up in Fenelon Falls, Ont., in the Kawartha Lakes area.
Rarely do glasses and t-shirts make national headlines, but they did when Poilievre decided to ditch the former and don the latter earlier this year as part of a pre-campaign aesthetic makeover.
Byrne says she had no role in Poilievre's decision to ditch the glasses and added that he's always been a fan of working out.
'Literally nothing to do with me,' she said. 'He said privately and publicly that Anna (Poilievre) prefers him without glasses,' she told Segal.
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