Bad week for the Conservatives puts Pierre Poilievre on the defensive

It was a week that was supposed to focus on Mark Carney’s first budget, but instead raised questions about Poilievre’s leadership.

It’s safe to say these probably weren’t the headlines Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives were hoping for this week.

Two announced departures from the Conservative caucus have overshadowed Poilievre’s criticisms of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s inaugural budget, shifting the focus back to Poilievre’s leadership ahead of his party’s convention in January.

While the circumstances around Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont’s defection to the Liberals and Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux’s out-of-the-blue early retirement differ, both were political gifts to the Carney government.

Two connected Tories who spoke to Global News worried they were more symptoms of a “malaise” that has fallen over the party since April’s election loss.

“In caucus, there’s a reasonably widespread concern that maybe Pierre can never get it done, and they’re not sure he’s taking steps to improve,” one Conservative source, who was granted anonymity to speak about internal party business, told Global News. A second source agreed with the assessment.

“There’s a lot of people in wait-and-see mode right now … I don’t think this is about any of the component pieces of what’s happened this week, it’s more like ‘does this guy have it, is he going to get there?’”

Two Conservative MPs recently told Global News that they had signed up to run again in the 2025 election based on the assumption that the party would form government. But those assumptions were made around the time when the party polled around 25 percentage points higher than Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Both MPs separately told Global that their interest in serving more years in opposition is low, which could lead to more problems for Poilievre when the next federal election comes.