OTTAWA — Conservatives will spend the summer "listening carefully to people" after another election loss, leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday as he headed into the party's first caucus meeting since Canadians went to the polls last week.
Poilievre said there is a lot for the Tories to be proud of in the election results and pointed to the collapse of NDP support as a reason for the Liberal win.
"If you had told me that we would get 41 per cent of the vote a couple of years ago, I would have said, 'Wow, that's ambitious,'" he said.
"But if you told me that we would get 41 per cent of the vote and still not win, I would have said, 'You're crazy.'"
Poilievre, who lost his former riding of Carleton after 20 years as the area's MP, will not be in the House of Commons when it opens later this month.
The 143 Conservatives who were elected on April 28 gathered in Ottawa Tuesday for the first time since the election to discuss the results. It's expected to be an all-day meeting.
"Anytime you don't form government, you have to take a look at why, but we're also incredibly optimistic about the base that we've built," said MP Andrew Scheer, adding Poilievre has attracted people who say they've never voted for the party before.
He said the party will analyze the campaign over the next several months.
The caucus needs to choose someone to take over as Opposition leader in the House of Commons for the spring sitting, because Poilievre is no longer an MP. Scheer wouldn't say whether he's interested in the job.
Conservative caucus members are also expected to discuss the provisions of the Reform Act, which would allow them to ask for a secret-ballot vote to review the party leadership.
That's the mechanism that was used to oust former leader Erin O'Toole after the party failed to beat the Trudeau Liberals in the 2021 election. Poilievre won the leadership in late 2022 with an overwhelming majority of support from Conservative party members.
But Conservatives who spoke to reporters on Tuesday made it clear they expect Poilievre will stay.
"I'm confident that our leader, Pierre Poilievre, will be able to make some adjustments to finish the job next time," Scheer said.
Michael Barrett, the former ethics critic who was re-elected in the riding of Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, said "everyone is very supportive. We're behind Pierre Poilievre."
"We have some lessons to learn from the campaign," Barrett said. "We're going to have those conversations in caucus today."
In a video posted to social media on Monday, Poilievre pledged to "learn and grow" and said his team needs to expand.
He did not answer questions Tuesday about what that might mean for Jenni Byrne, the party's campaign manager. Byrne faced criticism from inside and outside the conservative movement during the election campaign as the party's lead in the polls evaporated.
"She did a lot of hard work and our team has a lot to be proud of," Poilievre said.
MP-elect Damien Kurek has said he will resign his seat in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot to give Poilievre the chance to run in a byelection and get a seat in the House of Commons.
Kurek can only step down once he's been sworn in as a member of Parliament, a process that begins after Elections Canada has formally certified the results — something that will happen by May 19.
The government has up to 180 days to call the byelection but Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that he will call it soon.
— With files from Nick Murray
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
