Poilievre pledges to listen after election loss, Scheer tapped to represent caucus in interim

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to listen and learn from his 2025 federal election loss, the same day his caucus opted to empower themselves to have the ability to remove their leader, and named a former one to represent them in Parliament for now.

On Tuesday, speaking to reporters ahead of his caucus’ first meeting since the campaign, Poilievre said what he’s learned from his two-pronged electoral loss is that “the map has changed dramatically” and the party needs to plot out a path to pick up enough additional votes to get them across the finish line next time.

“If you told me … that we would get 41 per cent of the vote a couple years ago, I would have said ‘wow, that’s ambitious.’ But if you told me that we would get 41 per cent of the vote and still not win, I would have said ‘you’re crazy,’” Poilievre said.

Speaking outside Parliament Hill for the first time since both losing a seat he’d held for two decades and missing his first shot at becoming prime minister, Poilievre said with Canada looking more like a “two-party map” the Conservatives need to find a way to pick up one million more votes to “get over the finish line,” come the next election.

“We have to spend a lot of the summer listening carefully to people in the communities, coffee shops, and town halls and other events. We can find out who are the people that are most likely to join this growing movement,” Poilievre said.

His comments came ahead of the Conservatives’ first post-election caucus meeting, where the 143 newly elected and re-elected members of Parliament met behind closed doors to plot a path forward ahead of the recall of the House of Commons later this month.

Scheer to lead caucus in interim

One key piece of the meeting was selecting an interim leader to helm the party in the House of Commons until Poilievre again has a seat, which could take months. Until that happens, while he remains the leader of the Conservative party, he is no longer the leader of the Official Opposition.

Conservative MP-elect and past party leader Andrew Scheer emerged from Tuesday’s meeting declaring he will “be taking over the parliamentary leadership duties of the caucus until Mr. Poilievre joins us in the House.” He would not call himself the “Official Opposition” leader, when pressed.

“I can confirm that that our caucus has chosen me to be the parliamentary leader, if you will, the person who for procedural reasons will sign the forms and do the things in the House until our leader, Pierre Poilievre, rejoins us,” Scheer said in an interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play.

“For the very short term, just for a few weeks, I’ll be fulfilling the duties that that need to be done by someone from the House of Commons,” Scheer said, before emphasizing that Poilievre “still remains leader of the party,” and maintains “the support of caucus.”

“These are early minutes after our caucus concludes, so I might not have all the answers you might be looking for, but going forward, I can tell you that we’re in good spirits,” Scheer said. “You know, we had a good discussion, and there’s definitely going to be a lot of excitement when Pierre rejoins us in the chamber, and again leads us from the House.”

Poilievre’s path back to Parliament

Poilievre’s Tuesday morning comments echo the message he pressed in a video posted on Monday, in which he said he knows he needs to “learn and grow.”

In it, he also affirmed he now has a path to get back into Parliament, thanks to Conservative MP-elect Damien Kurek opting to resign to allow his leader the chance to run in the safe seat of Battle River—Crowfoot, Alta., in an upcoming byelection.

“When you get knocked down you get up and get going,” Poilievre said in the video, alongside his wife Anaida Poilievre.

While Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he’s willing to call that byelection “as soon as possible,” Poilievre likely won’t be back in the chamber until the fall sitting.

That’s because Kurek must first be sworn-in as an MP and then wait 30 days after the election result is officially published to resign. A byelection can then be called between 11 and 180 days after the seat is vacated.

CTV News briefly spoke to Kurek on Tuesday morning. While he didn’t say much, he did say he volunteered to step down and that there will be more to come on his reasons why.

“It’s an honour to be able to continue serving and putting our country first no matter what happens,” he said.

In the video, Poilievre also said there was lots to be thankful for out of the election results, including gains in British Columbia and Ontario, and an expanded coalition of young people and workers that saw the party pick up 2.3 million additional votes.

Majority of MPs vote to enact ‘Reform Act’

The other key contemplation caucus had Tuesday was whether to empower itself with four key internal powers for the coming session, including the ability to review and remove its party leader and elect an interim replacement.

According to a Conservative source, the majority of caucus voted in favour of again upholding what’s known as the “Reform Act” powers, as the party has done in past Parliaments.

While MPs have opted to maintain control of these levers, voting to enact the initiative doesn’t mean Poilievre’s caucus will trigger a leadership review.

Should Conservatives down the line opt to forge ahead with a leadership review, 20 per cent of caucus would need to sign a formal agreement to trigger the process, and then it would require a majority of caucus members to vote to remove Poilievre through a secret ballot process.

It was through these powers – an initiative from Ontario Conservative MP Michael Chong that came into effect in 2015 – that the party ousted former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole in the months following the 2021 federal election loss.

Though, with numerous prominent party members voicing support for Poilievre’s continued leadership, it appears he has the backing of his caucus to stay on.

“Talking to my colleagues ahead of today’s meeting, everyone is very supportive. We’re behind Pierre Poilievre,” said Conservative MP-elect Michael Barrett ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

“Obviously, as he said, we have some lessons to learn from the campaign. We’re going to have those conversations in caucus.”

Some MPs told reporters they welcome Poilievre’s reflection, but they feel that U.S. President Donald Trump and the collapse of the NDP were big factors in the Conservatives’ electoral outcome.

“I’m confident that our leader, Pierre Poilievre, will be able to make some adjustments to finish the job next time,” Scheer said Tuesday morning.

Poilievre defends campaign manager Byrne

Whether one of those adjustments will be who is leading the campaign behind the scenes, remains to be seen.

Asked ahead of the meeting whether he thinks his embattled campaign manager Jenni Byrne will stay on, Poilievre said “she did a lot of hard work, and our team has a lot to be proud of.”

According to Elections Canada, the Conservatives received 8,086,051 votes in this latest federal election, accounting for 41.3 per cent of the vote.

While the result is the party’s highest total for the party since Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in 1988 with 43 per cent of the popular vote, Poilievre still lost the popular vote to the Liberals, who garnered 43.7 per cent of the vote share.

One Conservative source told CTV News that during the caucus meeting, Poilievre continued to defend her.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Hanes, Stephanie Ha, and Vassy Kapelos

This is a developing story, check back for updates…