Conservative Party

Canada’s federal conservative leader will have a second chance of winning a seat in parliament when residents of a rural Alberta district cast their ballots in a closely watched byelection on Monday.

Pierre Poilievre’s bid to take the safe seat of Battle River-Crowfoot comes four months after the Conservatives’ defeat in April’s federal election, in which the party leader lost the riding he had held for more than 20 years.

It was an unexpected blow for the 45-year-old career politician who, before the election was upended by Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada, had been widely expected to become the country’s next prime minister.

OTTAWA—The safest assumption in Canadian politics right now is that Pierre Poilievre is going to win Monday’s federal byelection in Battle River—Crowfoot.

In interviews this week with Conservative insiders, in most every pundit’s analysis, and in the strategizing of politicos of all stripes, it’s taken as a given: the Tory leader will be back in the House of Commons for the fall sitting of Parliament. After all, since he lost in April’s general election the riding he represented on Ottawa’s suburban-rural fringe for 20 years, Poilievre is now running in a sprawling Alberta constituency that polling expert Éric Grenier has deemed “one of the safest Conservative seats in all of Canada.” His short-lived parliamentary exile is almost certainly coming to an end.

Prime Minister Poilievre?

Next week, the good people of Battle River-Crowfoot will elect a new member of Parliament and the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) can get back to worrying about the future.

OTTAWA — Three months after the federal election, Pierre Poilievre’s top advisor Jenni Byrne has broken her silence over the party’s failed bid to form government.

Byrne, a top Conservative operative and Poilievre ally, has been praised for her role in the party leader’s meteoric rise in the polls during the Justin Trudeau era but also criticized for her role in the last federal election that saw the Liberals elected once again.

OTTAWA — Canada’s leading election forecaster says that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a near lock to win the upcoming Battle River—Crowfoot byelection, but adds that the more interesting question could be by how much.

The upcoming federal byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot has Jennifer Fossen in unknown territory.

Fossen is the president of the Camrose & District Chamber of Commerce. In the April federal election, it held a candidate forum. Only one nominee showed up to speak to a half empty room.

Three months later, Fossen is hosting another candidate forum, this time in a byelection race featuring Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and the response is, well, off the hook.

CAMROSE, ALTA. — The balloons have long since deflated and drifted back to earth, the lawn signs and ballot boxes packed away. In most of the country, anyway.

But for Pierre Poilievre, the election campaign never really ended. After the Conservative leader lost the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, which he’d held for 21 years, to a Liberal newcomer, he was cast out into the proverbial wilderness. Specifically, to a sprawling rural Alberta riding where the freshly re-elected Tory MP stepped down, allowing Poilievre a chance to win the seat in a byelection and rejoin the party he leads in the House of Commons.

Warning Star article … I only found out I was blocked by accident.

Pierre Poilievre was feeling dejected and disappointed after the stinging federal election loss in April, sources close to the Conservative leader said, and he dialed back his public appearances for the better part of two months to reassess his strategy and regroup.

After that period of self-reflection, which was marked by private calls and visits with dozens of MPs, staff and supporters, Poilievre is re-emerging from a relatively dormant period — ramping up his federal byelection campaign, weighing in publicly on perceived Liberal missteps and speaking to the press.