1. Pierre Marcel Poilievre was born on June 3,1979 and is a Canadian politician currently serving as the leader of the Official Opposition and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada since 2022.
123 Facts About Pierre Poilievre
1. 2.
Pierre Poilievre has served as the member of Parliament for Carleton since 2004.
3.
Pierre Poilievre ran in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, winning a landslide on the first ballot.
4.
Pierre Poilievre is considered to be part of the Blue Tory faction within the Conservative Party.
5.
Pierre Poilievre was born on June 3,1979, in Calgary, Alberta, to 16-year-old high school student Jacqueline Farrell, whose mother had recently died.
6.
Pierre Poilievre was adopted by two schoolteachers, Marlene and Donald Poilievre, shortly after being born.
7.
Pierre Poilievre attended Henry Wise Wood High School and was on a wrestling team until he was forced to stop due to a temporary shoulder tendinitis injury at age 14.
8.
Pierre Poilievre became active in the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta by participating in meetings of both parties.
9.
Pierre Poilievre knocked on doors for political campaigns and served on a riding association.
10.
Pierre Poilievre graduated from Henry Wise Wood High School in 1997.
11.
Pierre Poilievre later worked briefly as a journalist for Alberta Report, a conservative weekly magazine.
12.
Pierre Poilievre was one of many Reform members on campus in conflict with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, which they believed to be unprincipled.
13.
Pierre Poilievre's essay, "Building Canada Through Freedom", focused on individual freedom and, among other things, argued for a two-term limit for members of Parliament.
14.
Pierre Poilievre was president of the University of Calgary's Young club, which was composed of both Progressive Conservative and Reform members focused on Alberta politics.
15.
Pierre Poilievre clashed with Patrick Brown, at the time the president of the national Progressive Conservative Youth Federation.
16.
Concerned that anti-Clark members would be removed, as Brown was an executive for the Progressive Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre threatened to shift the Progressive Conservative club to the United Alternative.
17.
In 2000, Pierre Poilievre was an organizer on a website called Organization to Draft Stockwell Day, seeking to recruit Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance party.
18.
In 2002, after Day's tenure as Leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre left Calgary and university without graduating to work as an advisor to Day, but he completed online coursework through Athabasca University to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Calgary in 2008.
19.
Pierre Poilievre was campaign communication director during Levant's campaign to replace Preston Manning in the 2002 Calgary Southwest by-election, until Levant withdrew to allow Stephen Harper to run.
20.
In 2003, Pierre Poilievre founded 3D Contact Inc with business partner Jonathan Denis, who became an Alberta Cabinet minister years later.
21.
Pierre Poilievre won his riding, and the Conservatives formed the Official Opposition to a Liberal minority government.
22.
Pierre Poilievre entered the 38th Canadian Parliament at the age of 25 along with Andrew Scheer as the youngest members of the Conservative caucus.
23.
Pierre Poilievre introduced himself and his young colleagues to media outlets as "libertarian-minded" members of the party.
24.
Pierre Poilievre was given the nickname "Skippy" early in his political career.
25.
Pierre Poilievre took up the cause of the Queensway Carleton Hospital, which was in the midst of an expansion project while facing provincial funding reductions for operations and an increase in rent as its lease with the National Capital Commission was set to expire in 2013.
26.
Pierre Poilievre sponsored private member Bill C-383, introduced on May 11,2005, to create a means to recall Members of Parliament through a petition, and Bill C-456, on November 24,2005, to insert parental responsibility into the Criminal Code by making it an offence for a parent to contribute through negligence, inappropriate action or lack of appropriate action to behaviour that results in their child committing an offence.
27.
Pierre Poilievre voiced opposition to the appointment of Michaelle Jean as the Governor General of Canada by taking an issue with Jean's past support of the Quebec sovereignty movement.
28.
Pierre Poilievre took out a petition asking the Queen of Canada to dismiss Jean.
29.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Pierre Poilievre to act as Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, who was his fellow Nepean-area Conservative MP John Baird.
30.
Pierre Poilievre was assigned to be a member of the Special Panel on Employment Insurance, tasked by Harper and Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff to find an interparty compromise to address the 2008 financial crisis.
31.
Pierre Poilievre was assigned to the Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee where he expressed concern over camera surveillance, like Google Street View, and called for CEO of Google Eric Schmidt to testify.
32.
In 2010, a police probe was triggered after Pierre Poilievre drove through a Parliament Hill screening gate without being permitted entry by the RCMP.
33.
In early September 2012, while serving on the FedDev Ontario, Pierre Poilievre echoed then-Ontario MPP Randy Hillier's calls for ending workers' mandatory union payments.
34.
Pierre Poilievre wrote forcefully against the 1946 Rand formula used in Canadian labour law, which stems from a Supreme Court ruling that allows unions to collect mandatory dues from workers they represent.
35.
In July 2013, Harper shuffled his cabinet, adding several new members, including Pierre Poilievre to replace Tim Uppal as Minister of State.
36.
On February 4,2014, Pierre Poilievre introduced Bill C-23, known as the Fair Elections Act, into the House of Commons, which was eventually passed.
37.
Pierre Poilievre introduced Bill C-50, known as the Citizen Voting Act, into the House of Commons in December 2014.
38.
Pierre Poilievre replaced Jason Kenney as minister of employment and social development and took on Baird's role as minister responsible for the National Capital Commission while keeping his duties as the minister responsible for democratic reform.
39.
In July 2015, Pierre Poilievre announced an expansion of a child care benefit program.
40.
Locally, Nepean was carved out of his riding in the 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution, so Pierre Poilievre moved from Barrhaven to Greely to seek election in the more rural Carleton riding.
41.
Pierre Poilievre narrowly won the seat in the election for the 42nd Canadian Parliament but the Conservatives only won enough seats to form the Official Opposition to a Liberal majority government.
42.
Pierre Poilievre was re-elected in 2019 to the 43rd Canadian Parliament, this time by a wider margin of the vote compared to his 2015 victory.
43.
Pierre Poilievre considered a bid and started to assemble a campaign team, though he announced he would not run on January 23,2020, citing his desire to spend more time with his family.
44.
When Bill C-10 was introduced, Pierre Poilievre opposed it alongside the rest of the Conservative caucus.
45.
Pierre Poilievre described the bill as "censorship" and used his social media to start an online petition against the bill.
46.
Pierre Poilievre then became critic for jobs and industry, though he only held this position for a short time as he regained his old position as finance critic on November 9,2021.
47.
Pierre Poilievre won re-election in Carleton in the 2021 federal election to the 44th Canadian Parliament.
48.
On February 5,2022, Pierre Poilievre implicitly declared his intention to run in the leadership election, stating "I'm running for Prime Minister".
49.
Pierre Poilievre's campaign was described as being centred on freedom and reducing the cost of living.
50.
Pierre Poilievre stated his desire to make Canada the "freest country in the world".
51.
Pierre Poilievre had been critical of fellow leadership candidates Jean Charest and Patrick Brown, who were seen to be part of the moderate faction of the Conservative Party; Pierre Poilievre accused Charest of being a Liberal and stated that Brown's support for a carbon tax is "disqualifying".
52.
Pierre Poilievre's campaign paid the legal fees of a whistleblower who claimed that Brown had broken election laws, leading to Brown's disqualification from the race.
53.
Pierre Poilievre had been endorsed for the leadership by 62 Conservative MPs, more than half of the party's then 119-member caucus in the House of Commons.
54.
Pierre Poilievre responded by defending his decision not to obtain a security clearance.
55.
In October 2022, the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre voted in favour of the Liberal government's Bill C-30 but voted against Bill C-31, citing concerns that the level of spending in the latter bill's measures would increase inflation.
56.
Pierre Poilievre said that his opposition was based on language that would "impose [Justin Trudeau's] carbon tax ideology onto those poor people", despite Ukraine already having a price on carbon and the urging of the Ukrainian ambassador to pass the bill.
57.
Pierre Poilievre demanded that the names of the member of parliament should be publicly released.
58.
Previously, Pierre Poilievre has resisted any attempts in obtaining a security clearance since becoming leader and this report did not change his mind because he believes that the clearance would be used to silence his criticism of the government on this issues.
59.
In October 2024, Prime Minister Trudeau told the foreign interference commission that he has seen the names of Conservative parliamentarians and candidates who were a clear risk of foreign interference and directed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to pass that information along to Pierre Poilievre, but said Pierre Poilievre's lack of security clearance prevent him from seeing this information.
60.
Pierre Poilievre responded by accusing Trudeau of lying and demanded that the prime minister release the names.
61.
On October 6,2022, it was reported that between 2018 and 2022, Pierre Poilievre's team-managed YouTube channel posted hundreds of videos with a hidden tag labelled "MGTOW", referencing the misogynistic online community.
62.
Pierre Poilievre condemned MGTOW, said he was unaware of the tags, and had his team immediately remove the tags.
63.
In September 2023, a video posted on social media showed Pierre Poilievre going door-knocking in suburban neighbourhoods to support his campaign for the next election.
64.
On October 20,2023, in an emailed statement, Pierre Poilievre "encouraged Albertans to stay in the CPP" amidst ongoing debate in Alberta on whether to leave the Canada Pension Plan.
65.
Pierre Poilievre stated that "The division today on the CPP is entirely the result of Justin Trudeau attacking the Alberta economy".
66.
Pierre Poilievre entered the election trailing Carney's Liberal Party in most opinion polls.
67.
Pierre Poilievre is widely considered to be part of the Blue Tory faction within the party, and has for the most part campaigned on economic issues, calling for Canada to be the "freest country on Earth".
68.
Pierre Poilievre argues that large budget deficits are the reason for rising inflation.
69.
Pierre Poilievre proposes implementing a pay-as-you-go law, requiring the government to offset any new spending with a cut elsewhere.
70.
Pierre Poilievre referred to the success of pay-as-you-go balancing the budget in the United States under the Clinton administration.
71.
Pierre Poilievre owns and uses cryptocurrency, and purchased a shawarma in London, Ontario, with Bitcoin to show support for it.
72.
Pierre Poilievre supports normalizing cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, which he believes is an inflation hedge.
73.
Pierre Poilievre stated he wants to make Canada the "blockchain capital of the world" and believed the Justin Trudeau government was bringing down the value of the Canadian dollar.
74.
Pierre Poilievre has criticized the Bank of Canada, accusing it of being "financially illiterate" for forecasting that there would be deflation as opposed to inflation, after his warning to them about inflation in 2020.
75.
Pierre Poilievre has said that the bank's governor Tiff Macklem, is Prime Minister Trudeau's "personal ATM" in terms of printing money to fund deficit spending for the pandemic.
76.
Pierre Poilievre stated that a government led by him would dismiss Macklem, audit the bank, and ban the bank's potential digital currency.
77.
Pierre Poilievre has been a critic of what he believes to be biased support for the government within the CBC, referring to the CBC as the "biased propaganda arm of the Liberal Party" in a response to reporters in Edmonton in 2023; however, he would continue to support the CBC's French programming.
78.
Pierre Poilievre proposes to convert the CBC's headquarters into affordable housing and other federal buildings into condominium housing.
79.
Pierre Poilievre supported the new replacement workers bill, known as Bill C-58.
80.
Pierre Poilievre stated that a government led by him would permit a runway expansion at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, allowing jets to fly in and out of the airport.
81.
Pierre Poilievre blames bureaucracy for a lack of new housing and proposes requiring big cities with unaffordable housing to increase their number of new homes built by 15 per cent annually, in order to continue receiving full federal infrastructure money.
82.
Pierre Poilievre proposes compensating other smaller cities for building extra housing.
83.
Pierre Poilievre has criticized "wealthy investors who borrow it and bid up housing prices".
84.
The Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre voted against Bill C-31, citing inflation concerns.
85.
In September 2023, Pierre Poilievre put forward a bill aiming to increase homebuilding, titled Bill C-356.
86.
Pierre Poilievre is in favour of addressing climate change by using green technology and placing targets to reduce carbon-related emissions, as opposed to using taxes.
87.
Pierre Poilievre believes Canadian energy is cleaner than that of other countries, and proposes a ban on importing foreign oil and a review of all pipeline projects cancelled by the current government.
88.
Pierre Poilievre favours repealing two laws that he describes as "anti-energy": Oil Tanker Moratorium Act and Impact Assessment Act.
89.
Pierre Poilievre insisted that Canada should create its own vaccine supply and make purchase agreements with more trustworthy governments.
90.
Pierre Poilievre disagreed with those advocating a no-fly zone for Ukraine, saying that he did not want to risk Canada going to war.
91.
Pierre Poilievre confirmed his cuts to foreign aid would not apply to Ukraine and that the country would continue to receive funding.
92.
Pierre Poilievre said that a government led by him would ban his Cabinet ministers from participating in the World Economic Forum, stating that the forum "is against the interests of our people".
93.
Pierre Poilievre condemned the actions of Hamas during the 2023 Gaza war and stated that Israel has the right to defend itself.
94.
In March 2024, Pierre Poilievre claimed his government would "defund antisemitism", and blamed the war on Iran, promising to ban the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
95.
Pierre Poilievre stated that as prime minister, his government would defund UNWRA and ensure that "Canadian aid actually goes to the suffering Palestinian people and not to those promoting terrorism in UNRWA".
96.
Some critics claim that Pierre Poilievre has demonstrated alignment with Donald Trump on certain issues, while several journalists have dismissed comparisons to Trump due to Poilievre's positions on immigration, socialized healthcare, and support for abortion rights.
97.
Pierre Poilievre himself has consistently rejected comparisons to the US president.
98.
Pierre Poilievre has echoed a similar phrase to "America First" by advocating for a "Canada First" approach, emphasizing the importance of strengthening Canada's economy through tax reductions, promoting free enterprise, and boosting energy and resource production.
99.
Pierre Poilievre proposed incentivizing more interprovincial Canadian trade with standardized rules for truck drivers and to return additional tax revenue as bonuses to provinces that remove barriers.
100.
Pierre Poilievre stated that government led by him would not introduce and would not pass any legislation restricting access to abortion, though he would allow his caucus to have free votes on legislation.
101.
In 2021, Pierre Poilievre voted in favour of banning conversion therapy in a free vote.
102.
In September 2023, Pierre Poilievre accused Trudeau of "demonizing concerned parents" after the prime minister released a statement in support of LGBTQ+ Canadians on Twitter in response to anti-gender movement protests.
103.
Pierre Poilievre's comments were condemned from the executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Egale Canada.
104.
In February 2024, when asked by reporters for his views on Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith's transgender legislation and if he was against minors under 18 using puberty blockers to support medical gender transition, Pierre Poilievre affirmed his support for the decision.
105.
Pierre Poilievre stated that he is in favour of freedom of expression and seeks to repeal Bill C-11 and the successor to Bill C-36, describing them as censorship.
106.
Pierre Poilievre stated a government led by him would scrap direct federal research and other grants to universities if they do not commit to section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects freedom of expression.
107.
Pierre Poilievre stated he would appoint a 'Free Speech Guardian' that would ensure compliance to section 2, investigate claims of academic censorship, report to the federal government on the universities that refuse to uphold the Charter right, and recommend cuts to direct federal grants to universities that do not uphold the right.
108.
Pierre Poilievre announced his support of those in the Canada convoy protest who were protesting peacefully, while denouncing individuals who were seen as promoting extremism.
109.
Pierre Poilievre believes that the federal government abused its power by invoking the Emergencies Act during the convoy protests and proposes limiting its power to prevent it from being used similarly in the future.
110.
In 2022, Pierre Poilievre described himself as pro-immigration and put forward policies aiming to speed up processing times to reunite families, keep refugees safe, and get jobs filled in Canada.
111.
Pierre Poilievre stated that a government led by him would negotiate agreements with provinces to license qualified professionals within 60 days of receiving applications, provide study loans to aid new immigrants in passing examinations, and permit immigrants to receive licences before moving to Canada.
112.
Pierre Poilievre has since argued that Canada should pursue reductions on immigration and asylum intake.
113.
Pierre Poilievre argued that before Trudeau became prime minister, Canada maintained a multi-generational consensus on immigration, bringing in immigrants at a level that the housing market, job market, and healthcare system could absorb.
114.
In January 2024, Pierre Poilievre argued that the removal of visa requirements had led to an increase in immigration fraud and abuses of the asylum process.
115.
In 2024, Pierre Poilievre stated that if he became prime minister he would significantly reduce the numbers of asylum seekers and temporary residents, citing the high amount of new arrivals compared to Canada's housing supply.
116.
Pierre Poilievre spoke in favour of smaller population growth by mitigating immigration numbers.
117.
Pierre Poilievre has called for a tougher policy against illegal immigration and has accused the Trudeau government of allowing illegal border crossings at Roxham Road to continue.
118.
Pierre Poilievre pledged to uphold Prime Minister Trudeau's healthcare funding set in 2023 for the provinces but shared provincial premiers' criticisms of the funding being too low and he blamed Trudeau for overspending elsewhere.
119.
In June 2022, Pierre Poilievre introduced private members Bill C-278, Prevention of Government-imposed Vaccination Mandates Act, which would end federally enforced COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
120.
In October 2022, Pierre Poilievre voted in support of a Conservative private member's bill to amend the Criminal Code, prohibiting the act of coercing health professionals to euthanize patients in medical assistance in dying, with the aim of upholding "freedom of conscience" in section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
121.
Pierre Poilievre opposes re-establishing the long-gun registry, and opposes the May 1,2020, and December 5,2024, Orders in Council, which banned over 1,324 models of firearms.
122.
In December 2017, Pierre Poilievre married Anaida Pierre Poilievre, a Senate aide, in a ceremony in Portugal.
123.
Pierre Poilievre has defended his investments, saying that he and his wife are "helping solve the problem by providing affordable rental accommodations to two deserving families".