Canada’s Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, has won a closely watched byelection in the province of Alberta, giving him a chance to return to parliament after suffering a shock defeat in April’s federal election.
Poilievre finished with 80.4% of the vote after Monday’s election in the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, in the deeply Conservative western province.
“Thank you very much to the great people of Battle River-Crowfoot,” Poilievre told supporters as he celebrated the victory with his family in the city of Camrose. “If I stand before you here today, it is by the grace of God and the good generosity of so many people … Getting to know the people in this region has been the privilege of my life.”
Poilievre, the leader of the opposition, lost the seat he had held for more than 20 years in April’s national election. He now replaces Damien Kurek, who volunteered to resign his seat in order to give Poilievre a chance return to parliament.
Without a seat in the House of Commons, Poilievre has been unable to fully serve his role as opposition leader. Instead of sparring with the prime minister, Mark Carney, during question period, Poilievre has been relegated to holding media scrums on the outskirts of parliament, diminishing his national visibility.
Monday’s victory, with relatively high turnout for a byelection, is likely to re-energize supporters. But Poilievre won one of the country’s most Conservative-friendly seats by a narrower margin than Kurek did in April. Diminished support for the federal leader could influence members when they vote to review his tenure as the top Tory in January.
The race, which had a national feel for a rural, sparsely populated riding, was also the target of the Longest Ballot Committee, a group calling for electoral reform. The movement coaxed 203 candidates to add their names to the roster, forcing Elections Canada to use write-in ballots for the first time during a federal election and to hire more staff to count ballots on election night.
“Make your vote count so that I can go to Ottawa and fight for you. Fight for your right to buy any truck or car you want. To keep your firearms, fight for farmers, oil and gas workers, and a stronger military. Fight for an immigration system that is under control and puts Canadians first,” Poilievre said in a video posted to social media on Monday, which included directions on how to correctly spell his surname. “But before I can do any of that, I need you to get out and vote today.”
