Poilievre adviser Jenni Byrne staying on, Conservatives confirm amid speculation of ouster

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

Jenni Byrne, the campaign director who many blame for the Conservatives' loss in the spring election, will continue to play a role in the party, but sources say she is stepping away from the daily grind on Parliament Hill.
Ms. Byrne did not personally return a request for comment from The Globe and Mail on Tuesday. But party spokesperson Sarah Fischer said Ms. Byrne remains involved.
'Jenni Byrne is still an adviser to the Conservative Party of Canada and Pierre Poilievre,' she said in an e-mail.
But, two sources told The Globe that she is scaling back her connection to the party's work in opposition.
The Globe is not naming the sources as they were not authorized by the party to discuss internal human-resources issues.
Word that Ms. Byrne had been forced out spread through Ottawa political circles Tuesday, the latest round of speculation on whether Leader Pierre Poilievre will make any changes to how his party does business after an election campaign that returned yet another Liberal minority government.
Ms. Byrne and Mr. Poilievre have a personal and professional relationship that goes back decades.
She is sometimes referred to as the most powerful woman in Conservative politics, and she played a significant role in the previous Conservative government, led by Stephen Harper.
Ms. Byrne ran Mr. Poilievre's party leadership race in 2022.
In the years after that victory, she was a near-constant presence on Parliament Hill, though she never had a formal title.
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She was involved in daily calls and meetings and helped direct strategy and messaging even as she was also running her own lobbying firm, Jenni Byrne and Associates, out of Toronto.
Toward the end of 2024, it seemed that the Conservatives would form government in the next election, and speculation then was whether Ms. Byrne would become Mr. Poilievre's chief of staff or continue with her firm.
But, the election of U.S. President Donald Trump changed the political landscape.
Mr. Poilievre – and Ms. Byrne – struggled to recalibrate their party's narrative to account for the surge of Canadian nationalism amid the trade dispute with the U.S.
So, though on April 28, the party won more seats and more votes than it had in 2021, it still failed to defeat the Liberals.
To some within the party, that is Ms. Byrne's fault and the fact that Mr. Poilievre lost his own seat is held up as evidence of her failure.
Others lay more of the blame on him, and point to Prime Minister Mark Carney's adoption of some Conservative pledges as evidence that their policy offerings weren't the issue, but their leader was.
Mr. Poilievre is now running in a by-election for the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot.
No formal postmortem of the party's election campaign has been announced, but Mr. Poilievre's leadership will be up for a review by the grassroots at a convention scheduled for January.
He has been asked outright in the past whether he'd fire Ms. Byrne, and has supported her.
On Monday, he was asked whether anything was going to change about how he runs the party.
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In his answer, he referred to the fact that the Conservatives won 41 per cent of the popular vote. It's a number that used to be enough to form government; the Liberals won in 2021 with just 32 per cent of the vote.
The collapse of support for the NDP, however, saw the Liberals garner nearly 44 per cent in April.
'Forty-one per cent might not be enough in the future, and so we have to ask, 'How can we expand even beyond that number and reach even more Canadians with our message?,' ' Mr. Poilievre told reporters after an unrelated announcement.
'We need to present ourselves as a government in waiting.'