Canada Populist Taps Discontent In a Bid to Lead

In early 2022, much of Canada ’s political establishment lined up to blast the Freedom Convoys —lines of truckers who blocked access to the country’s capital to protest Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

- By VIPAL MONGA And PAUL VIEIRA

But not Pierre Poilievre. The opposition Conservative Party lawmaker embraced the truckers like no other mainstream Canadian politician. He used their objections to lockdowns, vaccines and mask mandates to create the narrative that an elite and condescending prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had lost touch —a charge that stuck to the prime minister until he said on Monday that he would resign.

Poilievre, 45, rode a growing tide of public discontent with Trudeau to win the Conservative Party leadership later in 2022 and is poised to become prime minister in an eventual election. Under Poilievre, the Conservative Party leads Trudeau’s Liberal Party by 29 percentage points in a recent poll. Under Canadian law, an election must be held no later than October.