Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday said his plan ‘is to continue to lead and be the only leader in the country that’s fighting for an affordable Canada.’Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he has not reflected on his leadership style after losing two members of his caucus last week.
In his first remarks since Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to join the Liberals and Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux announced his resignation, Mr. Poilievre pointed to Mr. d’Entremont’s past comments critiquing the current government.
“He said that Liberal food-price inflation under Mark Carney was inhumane. And I couldn’t agree more,” Mr. Poilievre told reporters in Calgary Wednesday, quoting comments the now-Liberal MP made as a member of the Conservative Party.
“And I feel badly for the inhumane conditions, to use his own words, that he is now supporting for his own constituents.”
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The Liberal Party and Mr. d’Entremont’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. d’Entremont has represented the Nova Scotia riding of Acadie-Annapolis since 2019. He announced last Tuesday that he was crossing the floor to the Liberals – a boon to the minority government that had just introduced its first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Two days later, Mr. Jeneroux, who had represented the Edmonton Riverbend riding for a decade, announced he was resigning. He said his decision was motivated by a desire to spend time with family.
When the Conservative Leader was asked if the departures have led him to reflect on his leadership style, he said no.
“My plan is to continue to lead and be the only leader in the country that’s fighting for an affordable Canada,” Mr. Poilievre said.
Mr. d’Entremont said last week that for months he had felt disconnected from Mr. Poilievre’s approach to federal politics, and that he “wasn’t feeling I was aligned with the ideals of what the Leader of the Opposition had been talking about.”
His decision to cross the floor puts the Liberals two seats shy of a majority.
The two departures were announced as Mr. Poilievre prepares for a leadership review at the Conservative Party’s January convention in Calgary.
The federal Conservative caucus has publicly signalled its support for his continued leadership. Mr. Poilievre told reporters Wednesday that he doesn’t believe his leadership style will encourage more MPs to leave his party caucus.
Mr. Poilievre also used recent comments by Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Nate Erskine-Smith to attack the government’s budget. Mr. Erskine-Smith criticized his own party’s fiscal blueprint recently, saying it “does not live up to its promise of generational investments.” But he also said the budget partly meets the moment and “should not throw us into an election.”
On occasion, Mr. Erskine-Smith has voiced frustration with his own party, including when he was left out of Mr. Carney’s cabinet after the spring federal election. He was briefly the federal housing minister under prime minister Justin Trudeau and through Mr. Carney’s first three months as leader.
Mr. Carney’s spending plan, tabled last Tuesday, called for more than $140-billion in new spending over five years, partly offset by about $60-billion in internal savings.
The House of Commons is to vote on the budget next week; the minority Liberal government has already survived two confidence votes on amendments to the main budget motion.
The Bloc Québécois says it won’t support the budget, and the NDP has not said how it will vote but criticized the spending plan after it was tabled last week.