By Don Newman

February 28, 2026

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tried to get back in the game this past week. Poilievre did that with a speech in Toronto on Thursday that actually mentioned President Donald Trump by name. More notably, he mentioned Trump in a critical way.

Poilievre has been under increasing criticism for his reluctance to go after Trump and his administration for both the tariffs that are hobbling the Canadian economy and the aggressive stance the president has taken toward Canada, including his repeated threats to make Canada the 51st state.

Until now, Poilievre has mostly limited his discussion of American tariffs and aggressive behaviour to criticizing Prime Minister Mark Carney for his failure to reach a deal removing tariffs on Canadian exports of steel, aluminum, lumber and cars by a hopelessly unrealistic deadline last August.

Carney deserves criticism, not for failing to reach a deal but for articulating the August deadline, which had no possibility of being met, as a reachable target.

Since then, having witnessed the mistakes other countries have made by caving to Trump’s coercion, Carney has taken the more orthodox stand that Canada already has a trade deal with the United States — CUSMA.

For Poilievre, Trump’s behaviour has made it all but impossible to square the circle of placating his MAGA base while looking like a leader to the rest of the country. Despite the president’s unprecedented behaviour, the fact is that many Conservative Party members and voters like Trump.

They mainly belong to the hard-core base of the party, like the protesters who brought their so-called “freedom convoy” to Ottawa to paralyze the capital four years ago by blockading Parliament Hill.

At the time, Poilievre was not Conservative leader but a prominent MP. While most of downtown Ottawa was besieged, he made his sympathies clear by bringing coffee to the truckers.

He lost the Ottawa riding he had held for 20 years in the 2025 election. It is doubtful he will run in an Ottawa-area riding again.

Until recently, the Conservatives were close as a party to the Liberals in the public opinion polls. That is changing. The Liberals now have a 13% lead in the latest Angus Reid poll.

Still, people from that wing of the party have to be courted by Poilievre because they’re the Tories who brung him, as the saying goes. As does the segment of the business community that thinks almost any deal with the Americans is worth accepting if it gets rid of the tariffs.

That position is summed up by Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who after a recent visit to Washington said Canadians were throwing a “hissy fit” in their response to America’s economic attack on the country.

In his Toronto speech, Poilievre put forward some proposals that echo the Carney-Liberal approach. He even proposed a Parliamentary committee in which the Liberals and Conservatives could work together on Canada-US relations.

In normal times, this approach would prompt the classic political caution that if you give voters a choice between the real thing and an imitation, they’ll take the real thing every time. In our current context, Poilievre can frame the shift — nuanced by, among other differences, his criticism of Carney’s foreign policy for declaring a “rupture” with the U.S. and embracing China — as patriotism.

Poilievre has basically adopted the Carney policy mantra; making Canada more self-reliant at home by increasing military capacity and manufacturing. He also called for more large-scale energy projects.

“Energy security is national security,” he told the Toronto audience.

“Sovereignty is not declared,” he continued. “It is built deliberately, decisively and without excuses. Built by people who understand that Canada’s destiny will never be written in Washington, Beijing or anywhere else — but here at home by Canadians.”

Poilievre’s speech and decision to get on Team Canada may be driven by the political reality he faces. His own popularity trails Carney’s by double digits.

Until recently, the Conservatives were close as a party to the Liberals in the public opinion polls. That is changing. The Liberals now have a 13% lead in the latest Angus Reid poll.

Poilievre saying much of what Carney has been saying along with a stirring message of patriotic independence may not be a game changer for the Conservatives. He may be too late to the party.

But by changing his message, Poilievre is at least now saying what people want to hear.

Policy Columnist Don Newman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a lifetime member and a past president of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.