Finance critic Pierre Poilievre launches bid for Conservative Party leadership

MP Pierre Poilievre is the first to throw his hat into the ring for the Conservative leadership race. In a video posted on Twitter, he didn’t mention the party name but only that he’s running for Prime Minister. Within hours, the video was viewed nearly 3 million times.

Pierre Poilievre is the first candidate to announce his intention to run for the Conservative Party. Experts say it comes at an interesting time.

CHCH News Parliament Hill correspondent, Christopher Guly says “In the span of one week you have protestors locking down downtown Ottawa, you have Erin O’Toole dumped as leader of the Conservative Party, you have Candace Bergen named interim leader and now you have Pierre Poilivre as the first declared candidate for the Conservative leadership. There’s a connection.” Degroote School of Business professor, Marvin Ryder says “It’s a genius move to go in early like this. We talk about taking the oxygen out of the room meaning by declaring early he actually then scares anyone else who might be thinking about it.”

Other possible leadership contenders include Haldimand Norfolk MP Leslyn Lewis, and Peter Mackay, a former cabinet minister as well as Brampton mayor Patrick Brown but parliamentary correspondent Chris Guly says Pierre Poilivre’s chances are looking pretty good.

It didn’t take long after the current finance critic posted the video for members of parliament to begin endorsing his run including Ontario MPs Melissa Lantsman and Marilyn Gladu. Poilievre has also spent the past week throwing his support behind the convoy of truckers in the nation’s capital.

The race hasn’t officially begun, as the party’s election committee doesn’t exist just yet and no rules have been released at this time.