By Don Newman         

September 18, 2025

I thought it might be interesting. That’s why this week I made one of my rare appearances in the Parliamentary Press Gallery of which I am a lifetime member for the opening session of the fall sitting of Parliament and the much-touted question period face-off between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Walking out after question period ended, I ran into Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman, who asked what I was doing on Parliament Hill. I told her I was there to see the showdown between Carney and Poilievre.

“Do you want your money back?” she asked.

Lantsman had a point. If I had paid money to go QP expecting a clash between the pit-bull Conservative leader who had to win a by-election in a super-safe Conservative seat in Alberta to return to the House of Commons, and the cerebral, confident Carney, who beat the Conservative leader in the April general election, I’d have asked for a refund.

The media had been promoting their first question period meeting and the all-news networks had been hyping the face-off all morning and promoting live coverage of the coming showdown. But what happened failed to live up to the hype, even slightly.

The men entered the Commons within a few minutes of each other. The first thing †hey did was meet in the middle of the aisle between the Government and Opposition benches and shake hands, grinning like long lost friends. It was an ominous, non-ominous beginning for those hoping for a political punch-up.

And, of course, that punch-up never came. After a few tame exchanges, the two sat across the aisle from each other trading laughs and good-natured quips. Not exactly High Noon.

Poilievre has a well-earned reputation has a vicious political scrapper. His unrelenting attacks on Justin Trudeau helped drive Trudeau from office and forced the cancellation of some of his signature programs. Confronted with Carney in the subsequent election campaign, Poilievre did not measure up as well against a man who had led the central banks of two G-7 countries and appeared to be the best man to deal with mercurial and vindictive American President Donald Trump and the tariffs he has imposed on some Canadian exports to the United States.

In the course or three months, Poilievre and the Conservatives blew a 22-point lead in the public opinion polls, and although they ended up electing another 20 MPs and increasing their popular vote, they still closed more than twenty seats behind Carney and the Liberals.

After a few tame exchanges, the two sat across the aisle from each other trading laughs and good-natured quips. Not exactly ‘High Noon’.

That loss — including of his own Ottawa-area seat — for the moment at least has apparently convinced the Conservatives and Poilievre he should cut down his combativeness and try to be both likeable and more prime ministerial.

But because of the election loss, Poilievre must face a review vote on his leadership at a Conservative convention in Calgary in January. And that has created a dilemma for him, also on view on Parliament’s opening day.

Ongoing renovations to the majestic centre block on Parliament Hill have forced the relocation of the House of Commons and all that goes with it, including a replica of the Commons chamber, to the smaller West Block, down Parliament Hill and closer to Wellington Street which runs by all the Parliament Buildings. That means protesters, marching demonstrators and anyone else interested can get close to MPs as they enter the West Block to go to work. And protesters were out the day Parliament resumed, penned in behind crowd control fences and a sufficient number of burly uniformed Parliament Hill security policemen.

To describe them accurately, the protesters looked like the truck drivers who paralyzed Ottawa for more than three weeks when they drove their big highway rigs into the city, parked around Parliament Hill and blocked Parliament from meeting in 2022. They were protesting the Trudeau Liberal government. Their language and signs were foul. They were finally cleared and left town after the Government invoked the Emergencies Act, but not before the Conservatives had supported their blockade and Poilievre made sure he had himself filmed, taped and photographed bringing them coffee.

This week’s demonstrators were equally noisy, rude and crude. They shouted epithets at Liberals and spoke positively of Conservatives. They were noisy and annoying. To be fair, many of the members of the Conservative Party in no way resemble those demonstrators, but they are considered part of the party base. They will have a vote on the party leadership at the Calgary convention, and they and a good many more civilized Conservatives get revved up by Poilievre and his rhetoric.

Short of saying he doesn’t want to continue as leader —- at the moment, an inconceivable possibility —- there is no way Poilievre can lose the leadership review. But what it’s important is the margin by which he wins. If his party support falls below 70%, his leadership will be in trouble. Continuing in office could be problematic.

Per his uncharacteristically restrained question period return, Poilievre is going to have to find a way to fire up his base with the usual incendiary rhetoric and catch phrases while at the same time trying to maintain a more statesmanlike demeanour in the House.

To do that, he will have to try to keep his new Commons style while maintaining his old attack-style stump speeches. That way, he can try to appeal to Canadians who have so far not approved of him while at the same time retaining those who have supported him in the past.

Like rubbing your head and patting your stomach, it may not be all that easy.

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.