Conservative strategists say Trump comparisons no reason for Poilievre to change gear

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s pledge to boost Arctic security through a “massive” cut to Canada’s foreign aid budget has led to renewed attacks from his political opponents, who are accusing him of borrowing policy from U.S. President Donald Trump.

But some Conservative strategists are brushing off those comparisons, saying now is not the time for the party to change course even as it plans a large rally in Ottawa this weekend that pundits have billed as a pivot point.

In a social media post on Wednesday, the Liberal party stitched together clips of Poilievre and Trump promising foreign aid cuts with the tag line, “Gosh, how does he come up with these policies?”

The Trump administration has frozen foreign assistance and development funding and moved to cut staff at USAID, the agency responsible for a US$40-billion aid budget. The Vatican’s charity said this week the plan to gut USAID was “reckless” and could kill millions of people.

Poilievre didn’t give a specific target but at a news conference in Iqaluit on Monday he said he planned to pay for a new Arctic military base there by slashing funding to “dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracies.”

Canadian Conservatives have promised foreign aid cuts and spending reviews for years. During the 2019 election campaign, then-leader Andrew Scheer pledged to cut Canada’s foreign aid budget by 25 per cent.

“You can’t run as a Conservative leader running away from conservative ideals and principles just because the president of the U.S. may espouse some of those,” said Amanda Galbraith, a partner at reputation management firm Oyster Group.

Lori Turnbull, a politics professor in the faculty of management at Dalhousie University, said Poilievre’s foreign aid announcement will likely fuel the Trump comparisons at a time when the U.S president is deeply unpopular in Canada.

“The (other) parties are going to try to make people afraid of Poilievre because he’s like Trump. They’ve been doing that already,” she said.

That’s also included one of Poilievre’s prominent slogans, referring to his party as “common-sense Conservatives.”

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday after his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump boasted that “President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.'”

Ginny Roth, who was Poilievre’s communications director during the 2022 leadership campaign, said he is unlikely to back away from that messaging.

“It resonates with everyday people who say, you know, it defies common sense to collect tax dollars in Canada and spend them on absurd left-wing pet projects in foreign countries,” said Roth, a partner at Crestview Strategy.

Galbraith said she doesn’t think Poilievre risks sounding like Trump.

“I think he sounds like himself, and I think he sounds like Conservative governments that I worked with before. He sounds like Stephen Harper,” she said.

Turnbull said for true-blue Tory supporters, the comparisons likely won’t be a concern.

A Leger poll this fall, before the U.S. election, suggested some 45 per cent of Conservative supporters would vote for Trump if they could cast a ballot.

“The people who were going to hold their nose and vote for Poilievre because they were tired of Trudeau, that’s who he has to worry about. That’s where this is going to cost him,” Turnbull said.

Canada’s political landscape has shifted dramatically since December. Chrystia Freeland’s bombshell resignation from cabinet and the resulting turmoil in the Liberal government led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement on Jan. 6 that he will step down as party leader.

The Liberal leadership race has seen every major contender promise to back away from the consumer carbon pricing policy, which had lent Poilievre his main campaign slogan thus far: “Axe the tax.”

Conservative MPs uttered that phrase 303 times during the 54-day fall sitting of Parliament, but it has been replaced more prominently with “Canada first” at Poilievre’s events in recent weeks.

Most Canadians’ attention has turned to Trump and his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods. That’s brought with it a rise in national pride and a dramatic shift in the national polls.

A recent Leger poll suggests if front-runner Mark Carney is chosen as the next Liberal leader on March 9, the double-digit lead the Conservatives have held for around 18 months would disappear.

Roth said that cost of living issues are still likely to dominate the election campaign, which could begin as early as mid-March.

“Any good politician will always have a plan and adapt to changing circumstances and change what they maybe emphasize or put in the window based on what’s relevant in the moment,” she said, adding that a response is needed to “the seemingly existential threat of Trump” — but it should be consistent with the plan they’ve had from Day 1.

She is not alone among Conservative strategists who don’t see a need for the Tories to shift to an entirely new message.

“Just like (Poilievre) has met the moment in the past on affordability, housing, other concerns, I think he’s simply talking about what he’s hearing Canadians raise with him,” said Laura Kurkimaki, vice-president at McMillan Vantage.

She said the Arctic security announcement on Monday “sends a good signal to our American neighbours (that) the Conservatives are taking a hard look at our Arctic sovereignty.”

But there has been some shifting in language. Poilievre’s Saturday event is being billed as a “Canada First rally,” a departure from his past branding that focused on pushing for “a carbon tax election.”

That also mirrors Trump’s “America First trade policy” branding that is headlining his tariff threats.

Turnbull said Trump’s tariff threats mean there is “a totally new ballot question for the next election.”

“I think (Poilievre) is now in a position where he has to make the case to voters for himself and not just against Trudeau,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press