The Canada Day Speech Pierre Poilievre Should Deliver
June 11, 2026
Planning his political ascendancy has been the work of Pierre Poilievre’s life as an adult. As Parliament rises for the summer, he might take stock.
The positions he’s taken, or the way he expresses himself, has left many voters cold. He bet heavily on harnessing the frustration of young people, especially young men. He pushed his whole stack in. Older voters backed away. Today, he trails Mark Carney among young people, and is miles behind among 60+ voters.
His problem isn’t policy. It’s tone and attitude. He needs to draw people towards him. It won’t happen by telling people the other guy is a dunce. Or that Canada is failing and swirling the drain. Or that Alberta separatists shouldn’t vote to separate but you can well understand why they might want to.
Poilievre needs more people to like the sound of his voice. To hear him say things that make them feel more confident about the future, not more depressed about the state of things.
Poilievre has decided he couldn’t win an election soon, so he should bide his time and wait for Carney to lose popularity. How he uses that time will have a lot to do with what would happen, in that circumstance where people are looking for something different, again.
(Fully understanding that he is extremely unlikely to take any advice from me) I found myself wondering what I would want him to say if I were still a Conservative partisan (as I was in the days of Mulroney, Clark and Charest) and hoping for a day when my party could win again.
Here’s how my Poilievre Canada Day speech would go.
Ladies and Gentlemen, what a country we live in.
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate what makes us love this country, and why “Canadian” is something that is respected around the world. Let me share with you what comes to mind for me.
It’s true there’s crime in Canada, but it’s one of the safest places in the world. This is a place where we debate how to make it even safer to walk the streets, to worship as you wish, to be yourself.
We love our seasons. We embrace the ice and snow, talk up our harvests, drink in the changing fall colours, relish the smell of earth in spring, talk about the bugs and when they’ll go away, enjoy the water and the swims and camps and campfires.
We occupy and nurture a bigger part of the planet, including the oceans, than almost any country in the world. It’s our inheritance and will be our legacy and we feel that responsibility keenly.
We love our music, sports and arts. Our hearts swell when one of us gets noticed around the world, but we also love the ones who remain our own special “if you know you know” artists.
Our politics aren’t perfect, our politicians are human. But few are corrupt. Almost all are trying to do what they think is right. Money doesn’t buy political favours. Corporations can’t give more money than the regular individual. This is good.
Every day when I stand up in the House of Commons, I know that my job is to challenge and criticise and pressure the government. But I also know that Canadians expect me to do it with a measure of maturity and respect. For what it’s worth, I’m sure I don’t always meet that standard, but I know I should strive to.
People in Canada aren’t obsessed with politics. It plays a healthy role in our life as a country. But it’s not everything, and it’s shouldn’t sound like warfare. People in politics, myself included, need to check ourselves sometimes, and remind ourselves that we work for people who have lives to live, and agendas that mostly have nothing to do with our work on their behalf. Humility is too rare in the political world, even though it might just be the most Canadian trait of all. And yes, that’s me saying I know I set a less than stellar example.
I think Mark Carney is a good human being, a very smart person, and someone truly dedicated to his country. He is doing what he’s doing because he wants to be of service to his country. He’s hard not to like, and for sure there are some days when I appreciate how he approaches his job.
When next we campaign against each other, I’ll paint a sharp contrast between what I think would serve your interests and what he is doing. I’ll talk about how he’s fallen into promising more than he can deliver, spending more than we all can afford, and putting too much trust in government rather than the hard work and spirit of enterprise of the people. I’ll highlight where our policies would differ and tell you more about the people who are running alongside me for the Conservative Party.
Between now, and then, though, let me put a few things on the table.
And leave no room for doubt.
Canada is a helluva success story. People from around the world want to come here, and of course they would. No one who is thinking clearly should vote to break up Canada. That’s a terrible idea.
Our economy runs on a lot of people working hard, adapting to a changing world, reinventing how we make a living, and persevering. Governments don’t always help, sometimes hurt, but this country is not broken. Not even close.
The last several years have been trying for a lot of people. Emotions can run high, politics can get brittle, and I’ve done more than my share of trying to rile people up, for political purposes. And so as we arrive at another Canada Day, I’ve been taking stock, perhaps, to borrow a phrase “to look within myself” a bit.
People are entitled to hold me to a standard. To be a champion for Canada. To be preoccupied with Canadians, not only Conservatives, to build confidence, not stoke fear. To give people more hope, better ideas, and show a set of values they can be proud to see on a national stage.
To everyone who lives in Canada today, who built Canada in the past, and who pay the bills for people like me to do the work we do, thank you for making this country as great as it is, and for holding us to a high standard. Your country, and you, deserve nothing less.”
Policy Contributor Bruce Anderson is Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Spark Advocacy. He has been a pollster, strategy and communications advisor for more than 40 years and is a regular on The Bridge podcasts. He was an active supporter of Mark Carney during the Liberal leadership campaign and federal election.