Poilievre says he lost Ottawa riding for being 'honest' about plan to cut public sector jobs

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says he lost his riding of Carleton in the federal election due to an "aggressive" campaign by public sector unions after he was honest about wanting to cut federal worker jobs.

Poilievre had held the Ottawa riding of Carleton for two decades until the April 28 election, when he was defeated by Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy by 4,500 votes.

The loss was a major setback for the leader, who before the new year had been favoured to become prime minister.

Poilievre no longer has a seat in the House of Commons, but he's hoping to regain one in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River–Crowfoot on Aug. 18 — after former Conservative MP Damien Kurek offered up his spot in what is one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

In an interview with CBC's The House that airs on Saturday, Poilievre said his campaign was transparent about his intention to cut public service jobs if his party won the election.

"And it's an Ottawa riding with a lot of federal public servants who disagreed with that approach," Poilievre said. "They ran a very aggressive campaign, particularly the public sector unions did, to defeat me on that basis."

The leader said his voice as a representative for Canadians across the country took precedence over pleasing the 124,000 or so people in the riding — which happens to border Prime Minister Mark Carney's riding of Nepean.

But Poilievre continues to want to highlight his party's successes in the election under his leadership, including the two and a half million more votes it garnered than in the 2021 federal election, as well as adding 25 seats in Parliament.

He will be undergoing a mandatory leadership review in January, which the Conservative Party's constitution calls for if a leader does not resign following an election loss.

"Some people might say, 'Well, it wasn't the best idea to run on a smaller federal public service when you're an Ottawa MP,' but I had an entire country to represent," Poilievre said. "I had to be honest with people."

He said the Liberals didn't do the same.

"I guess I could've done what the Liberals did, which is hide their plans," Poilievre said.

Last week, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne asked fellow cabinet ministers to come up with "ambitious savings proposals" to get a handle on public sector spending.

During the election campaign, Carney did share his intention to rein in federal operational spending, saying he would "spend less, so Canada can invest more."