--- title: It's Pierre Poilievre's Canada Now description: The Trump-like Conservative leader is riding an anti-establishment wave—and will almost certainly become Prime Minister this year. canonical: https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/ author: David Moscrop article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-01-12T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:13.123Z article:section: Ideas og:title: It's Pierre Poilievre's Canada Now og:description: The Trump-like Conservative leader is riding an anti-establishment wave—and will almost certainly become PM this year. og:url: https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01225c05fb7dcc3/6998b26247fe51fa1355971f/GettyImages-2192519908.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: CANADA-POLITICS-POILIEVRE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: It's Pierre Poilievre's Canada Now twitter:description: The Trump-like Conservative leader is riding an anti-establishment wave—and will almost certainly become PM this year. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01225c05fb7dcc3/6998b26247fe51fa1355971f/GettyImages-2192519908.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Canada Will Soon Get a Trump-Like Leader > Sponsored content. 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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stepping down as the leader of the ruling Liberal Party, following months of pressure from partymates to resign amid increasingly poor public approval ratings._ by [David Moscrop](https://time.com/author/david-moscrop/) ## David Moscrop Contributor David Moscrop is an Ottawa-based columnist, podcast host, and author. Jan 12, 2025 12:00 PM UTC  Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, holds a press conference in Ottawa on Jan. 9, 2025. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, holds a press conference in Ottawa on Jan. 9, 2025.Dave Chan—AFP/Getty Images by [David Moscrop](https://time.com/author/david-moscrop/) ## David Moscrop Contributor David Moscrop is an Ottawa-based columnist, podcast host, and author. Jan 12, 2025 12:00 PM UTC On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his [resignation](https://time.com/7205012/justin-trudeau-resigns-liberal-party-leader/) to avoid a revolt from his Liberal lawmakers amid over a year of [disastrous polling](https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/canada/). Parliament is now suspended until March and Trudeau will stay on until the Liberals pick a new leader. But while the country is entering a brief period of limbo, one thing is all but certain. A man who has [drawn comparisons](https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2022/06/09/canadas-trump-is-politer-than-the-real-thing) to Donald Trump will become Canada’s Prime Minister. Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, is [on track](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-s-conservatives-end-2024-hitting-long-term-high-in-the-polls-amid-trudeau-resignation-calls-nanos-1.7161525) to decisively win an election [expected this Spring](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-trudeau-resignation-election-call/) and bring the Trudeau era to an end. The Conservatives are up by more than 20 points in the polls, amid deep anger over the [cost-of-living crisis](https://globalnews.ca/news/10936722/canada-top-news-stories-2024-cost-of-living/) and other issues that have recently toppled incumbents across the West. **Read More:** [_How Canada Fell Out of Love With Trudeau_](https://time.com/7205277/canada-trudeau-resignation/) Should Poilievre win his expected majority in Parliament, he will have the run of the joint. Canadian Prime Ministers are famously—or infamously—powerful in such situations. No Canadian Prime Minister is an absolute monarch—they face modest restraints from their caucus, the courts, opposition in the House of Commons, the Senate, interest groups, and the people of Canada themselves—but in practice they can[ get away with an awful lot](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-problem-isnt-trudeau-its-that-prime-ministers-have-too-much-power/) between elections. The Westminster “[whip system](https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-the-trouble-with-canadas-friendly-dictators)” is unique for its strength and it means that Poilievre will have at least four years in which his soldiers are lined up firmly behind him—just as Trudeau once did. He’ll enjoy that power as long as he remains popular—just as Trudeau once did. Poilievre is a bare-knuckle [brawler of a politician](https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2022/09/15/canadas-conservatives-pick-a-brainy-brawler-as-leader) who means what he says and says what he believes to be true. He’s a lifelong conservative, a true believer, and a deep ideologue in the make and mold of the Reagan era. He’s committed to a 1980s-style [tough on crime program](https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/03/13/Poilievre-Tough-On-Crime-Measures/), the sort that’s proven [time](https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/failure-get-tough-crime-policy) and [again](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/14/new-wave-of-tough-on-crime-laws/72955845007/) to fail. He’s doubtless about the power of the [free market](https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/canada-opposition-leader-pierre-poilievre) and utterly committed to restraining government—cutting costs, taxes, and letting capitalism do its thing, convinced of the Gipper’s adage that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem. In that sense, Canadians can expect Poilievre to slash taxes, regulations, and, perhaps, social programs. He [hasn’t committed](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-budget-reaction-social-programs-1.7177636) to keeping popular Trudeau-era social programs, including a [free dental care plan](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/one-million-canadians-dental-care-1.7369144) and a budding [prescription drug care](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwylw2ee05yo) one. The 45-year-old Poilievre has been an elected politician his entire career. But he has carefully cultivated an outsider narrative. He has a boxer’s demeanour. There are echoes of the far right in his war cries. He [attacks](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-lashes-out-ctv-1.7332571) journalists, gets the facts [wrong](https://www.davidmoscrop.com/p/pierre-poilievre-is-spreading-bullshit) in the service of over-the-top rhetoric, and [flirts with](https://thewalrus.ca/poilievre-conspiracy-theories/) [extremists](https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/08/09/opinion/pierre-poilievre-diagolon-disowns-extremists-reporters-power). He’s not shy about [bounding into the growing fronts of the culture wars](https://www.davidmoscrop.com/p/the-culture-wars-heat-up-in-canada), including the pushback against trans rights. He has something of an extremely-online alt-right YouTuber about him, a kind of smarmy and self-satisfied certainty, which is as disconcerting as it is fitting for the times. But there’s more to Poilievre than just that. Since becoming Conservative Party leader, he has focused on [affordability issues](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/affordability-issues-parliament-return-1.7097448) that are a top voter concern, [courting](https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/01/11/Poilievre-Ploy-Court-Working-Class/) the working class in the process. It’s a strategy that’s been a smashing success at a time when the country is indeed making its way through a protracted cost-of-living crisis driven by the lingering effects of the pandemic, high—[though falling](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-interest-rate-1.7312774)—interest rates, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a [Trudeau carbon tax](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-says-the-next-canadian-election-will-be-about-the-carbon-price-1.7170691). With a pocketbook-first agenda and an angry-everyman demeanour, Poilievre has managed to become the man for the moment. But Poilievre’s brash style will mean that Canada—a country with a reputation for [“nice” people](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20150311-can-canada-teach-the-rest-of-us-to-be-nicer) and nice politics—may increasingly look like the toxic partisanship seen everywhere that the [Donald Trump](https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/) era has exacerbated to the extreme in the U.S. For now, though, Poilievre’s discipline in focusing on economic issues has paid off. He’s been wise to show up where voters tend to be, speaking to them in ways that resonate, reflecting back the anger and frustration [so many people feel](https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/05/07/canadians-angrier-governments-rage-index/) as they struggle to afford groceries and rent or mortgage payments, as they worry if their jobs will remain secure and sufficient, or as they wait months to see a doctor, if [they can find one](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/doctor-wait-lists-patients-1.7199181). He’s an [angry man](https://macleans.ca/politics/why-is-pierre-poilievre-so-angry/), but it’s an angry time. That anger is Poilievre’s ally today, but tomorrow it could be his enemy—and the source of his downfall. If he wins and fails to get a grip on the issues Canadians care most about, he may find himself sharing Trudeau’s fate before long, as so many of his predecessors have. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/"},"headline":"Canada Will Soon Get a Trump-Like Leader","datePublished":"2025-01-12T12:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:50:13.123Z","description":"The Trump-like Conservative leader is riding an anti-establishment wave—and will almost certainly become Prime Minister this year.","url":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/","keywords":["world affairs","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01225c05fb7dcc3/6998b26247fe51fa1355971f/GettyImages-2192519908.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Moscrop","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/david-moscrop/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01225c05fb7dcc3/6998b26247fe51fa1355971f/GettyImages-2192519908.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CANADA-POLITICS-POILIEVRE","caption":"CANADA-POLITICS-POILIEVRE","creditText":"Dave Chan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/world-affairs/","name":"world affairs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/","name":"Canada Will Soon Get a Trump-Like Leader"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Step Down as Leader of Liberal Party","description":"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stepping down as the leader of the ruling Liberal Party, following months of pressure from partymates to resign amid increasingly poor public approval ratings.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JXVfMraP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2025-01-06T16:40:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JXVfMraP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/","duration":"PT1M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7206307/canada-poilievre-trudeau-resignation/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```