OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre, one of the first members of Parliament elected under the Conservative party's banner, won the leadership race Saturday night.
The party veteran and former cabinet minister, known for his combative style, won a resounding first-ballot victory as the results were announced before a room of Conservative faithful in Ottawa on Saturday evening.
Poilievre, first elected as a member of Parliament at the age of 25, campaigned for the top job on the central rallying cry of "freedom."
He embraced those who opposed getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and railed against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government spending and the toll inflation is taking on Canadians.
Poilievre turned heads in the campaign when he began appearing in front of crowds that at times swelled into the thousands, which he kept up throughout the race.
That prompted his campaign to say his populist message had unleashed a movement, which it galvanized to sell more than 300,000 memberships.
At 43, Poilievre was first elected in 2004 as one the youngest MPs in the House of Commons, where he represents the Ottawa-area riding now called Carleton.
He entered the leadership contest beloved by many of the party's grassroots and revered as one of the party's highest-profile MPs and most effective performers in Parliament.
The MP rose to prominence after the Conservatives defeated the Liberals in 2006. In 2008, Harper named him to serve as his parliamentary secretary and it was through that role the young Poilievre earned his reputation as being an attack dog whose style irked critics as being overly aggressive and, at times, immature.
In 2013, Poilievre was appointed to serve as democratic reform minister. In that government's dying days of 2015 before it fell to the Liberals, he briefly served as employment minister.
Poilievre is married with two young kids. His wife Anaida, whom he wed in 2017, works on Parliament Hill as a political staffer.
Before he was elected as an MP, he grew up running in Conservative circles, coming to Ottawa in 2002 as a political staffer for former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day and grew up campaigning for the likes of leaders such as Jason Kenney.
Poilievre was raised in Calgary and was adopted by his parents. He has said the reason he became interested in politics is because of an injury that left him unable to keep playing competitive sports as a teen.
In the years since the Conservatives lost power, Poilievre served as the party's finance critic, honing his economic messages against government spending and deficits, which he delivered more loudly once the COVID-19 pandemic hit and inflation surged.
Leadership ambitions had been on Poilievre's mind for at least a couple of years.
He considered running the last time the party was picking a leader in 2020, but ultimately decided against it just days before his campaign was supposed to launch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2022.
Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press
