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The federal Conservative Party’s campaign manager is shrugging off polls showing the Liberals hold a double-digit lead over the Tories — while Pierre Poilievre says he’s broadening his image but won’t change who he is.
“Polls are polls, and they do what polls do,” Steve Outhouse said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live that aired Sunday morning. “What you need to do, if you’re talking about the long game, is to not worry about them on a day-to-day basis.”
Over the last month, several national pollsters — including Leger, Abacus Data and Nanos Research — have found the Liberals leading the Conservatives by at least 10 points.
Outhouse told guest host David Common that the Conservatives are determined to speak to the issues Canadians care about most, notably the cost of living.
“Yes, there are distractions that come up on the daily that people will talk about, but if they’re not able to feed their families or not able to find housing, those are things that are going to matter,” he said.
Approval of the federal government has reached new highs since Prime Minister Mark Carney took office one year ago. David Coletto from Abacus Data and Sébastien Dallaire from Leger join Power & Politics to discuss government favourability amid economic and geopolitical tensions
The Tory campaign manager also drew upon his experiences running provincial campaigns in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, where he helped the UCP’s Danielle Smith and the Progressive Conservatives’ Tony Wakeham, respectively, come from behind and win.
“Going into that led our opponents there actually to get quite complacent, and so we just have to keep charting our course and talking to Canadians every day — talking about issues that matter to them, and that’s the long game,” Outhouse said.
In January 2025, the federal Liberals were trailing the Conservatives by 20 points in the polls until they staged a massive comeback with Mark Carney at the helm — an example of how political fortunes can rapidly change.
On Wednesday, Abacus Data CEO David Coletto said on CBC’s Power & Politics that Carney and his Liberal government have “created an environment where people are generally happy” and feel assured they are being guided through a litany of issues, namely the U.S. trade war.
But Coletto said he’s not seeing evidence in his polling that Canadians’ openness to voting Conservative is dropping — nor are more people souring on their opinion of Poilievre.
“To make it simple, it feels like [Carney’s] got game and Canadians are responding positively to him, as opposed to being pushed to him because they don’t like the alternatives,” he said.
Poilievre broadening his image
Like Outhouse, Poilievre says he’s not straying from his key focus on the cost of living for Canadians.
“I’m going to continue to be absolutely monomaniacally obsessed with affordability, no matter what,” Poilierve said in an interview on Bloomberg This Weekend that aired Saturday.
“We got a record number of votes in Canada’s big cities, but we have to get even more,” he told host David Gura, adding that the plan to get there involves tackling affordability issues and concerns over safety and housing.
“We want to be the party of the aspirational, hard-working young person that dreams of the Canadian promise. And that, I think, is part of the goal to win the next election,” Poilievre said.
But in recent weeks, the Conservative leader has adjusted his strategy to be more international by travelling to London, Germany and the United States. At the same time, he’s worked to expand his visibility by doing more media interviews — including with Texas-based podcaster Joe Rogan.
Outhouse said after he took the role of Conservative campaign manager, people “indicated quite clearly they want to see more sides of Pierre Poilievre.”
“Mr. Rogan does have a large listenership here in Canada, and I do think a conversational style gave a chance for Pierre Poilievre to show different sides of himself,” Outhouse said.
Poilievre told Gura he wants to show Canadians “all the things that I can bring to the job as prime minister. Sometimes in the job, you have to be prosecutorial and aggressive, and other times you have to be reflective and strategic.
“So it’s about broadening the range rather than changing who I am, which I’ll never do,” Poilievre said.
