A new book sheds light on Pierre Poilievre’s ‘most difficult moments’

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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was not only an extremely persuasive young Reform party activist, but also part of the semi-secret “Khmer Bleu” caucus and a former proponent of term limits who is now in his seventh term as a member of Parliament.

Those are only some of the revelations contained in the newly released book “Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life” by Andrew Lawton, senior journalist at True North and host of The Andrew Lawton Show who spoke to dozens of people in Poilievre’s entourage.

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Below are some quirky and some more serious elements we learned about the man who could become Canada’s next prime minister after the next election based on current polls.

The 2014 terrorist attack on Parliament Hill haunted him for months

Lawton described this as “one of the most difficult moments Poilievre had to endure as a minister.” On October 22, 2014, a lone gunman killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before heading to Centre Block. Conservative MPs had barricaded themselves in their caucus meeting room, but Poilievre was not one of them.

“Poilievre was one of roughly a dozen MPs guarding the room with flagpoles wielded as spears. Distributed by a junior staffer from Harper’s office, each of the poles had a pointy maple leaf at the top. The MPs stood ready to stab any intruder who dared enter,” writes Lawton, adding that Poilievre thought at the time there might have been over a dozen gunmen.

The attack “haunted him in his dreams in the months that followed,” and he had an “obsessive need to close his drapes” when at home. He also recounted having a “real personal connection” with Cirillo, a young man who liked to work out at the gym like him and had his life ahead of him. Poilievre kept his pointy flagpole spear after the attack.

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His biological mother would have called him Jeff

Poilievre has often talked of how he was born to an unwed teenage mother and ultimately adopted by two schoolteachers, Marlene and Donald Poilievre. Lawton’s book starts by diving into Poilievre’s complicated family history and explains why his biological mother, Jacqueline, daughter of an Irish immigrant, decided to put him up for adoption.

It also reveals that she had already thought of a name for her first-born: “Had she raised him on her own, she would have named him Jeff, a tidbit that later resulted in Poilievre being nicknamed Jeff by some of his high school friends,” writes Lawton.

A few years later, Jacqueline gave birth to another boy, Patrick. After trying to raise him on her own, she decided to put him up for adoption. At the time, the Poilievres were looking at adopting another child and Pierre Poilievre therefore was raised with his half-brother.

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He impressed Jason Kenney with his sales pitch to voters at only 17

One of the funniest parts of Lawton’s book involves former Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s account of how he came to meet Poilievre. In 1996, Kenney was preparing to run as the Reform Party’s nominee in Calgary Southeast and heard a “very mature, highly persuasive voice” among the dozen volunteers selling memberships by phone one evening.

“Hearing the voice, Kenney formed a picture in his mind of a lawyerly type in his forties or fifties, brimming with self-confidence and a natural sense of persuasion,” it reads. Kenney was also impressed by the volunteer’s effectiveness, because he was closing sales with 80 per cent of callers whereas the typical volunteer was closing 20 to 25 per cent.

“At the end of the night of calling, I was really keen on meeting this Mr. Poilievre,” he said. “And this wet-behind-the-ears, still-a-little-bit-scrawny seventeen-year-old introduces himself to me as Pierre Poilievre. I’ll never forget it. It hit me with the force of revelation that this guy was an absolute savant, a genius.”

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He once promised to resign after his second term in office

As a commerce student at the University of Calgary, Poilievre became a finalist for an essay contest “As Prime Minister, I Would…” in 1999 — a 2,500 piece he says he wrote in a single night. Titled “Building Canada through freedom,” he put on paper the many political ideals of freedom and smaller government he still holds today.

Interestingly, at the time, he argued for the abolition of the tax on capital gains, saying he would “free the eagle from its cage.” Poilievre will soon have to decide if his party will vote for or against raising the inclusion rate on capital gains tax, as proposed in the Liberals’ last budget.

Poilievre also championed term limits, which Lawton points out was a policy championed by Reformers. “Finally, I would make a personal commitment,” he wrote in his closing pledge. “I would resign after serving my second term in office. (…) Politics should not be a lifelong career.” Poilievre is now in his seventh term and has been an MP for 20 years.

He was once part of the semi-secret ‘Khmer Bleu’ group inside the CPC

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Once the Conservatives formed government, Poilievre was part of a group of more right-wing Conservative MPs that met once a week, before the party’s weekly caucus meeting, to push for a “truly conservative agenda.” Their goal was also to offset the Red Tories and Quebec caucus which wielded “disproportionate influence” in caucus meetings.

“This informal cabal had a few names, including ‘True Blue’ and Poilievre’s preference, the ‘Liberty Caucus,’ but it ultimately came to be known as the ‘Khmer Bleu,’ a tongue-in-cheek play on the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communist regime of the 1970s.”

MPs Cheryl Gallant and Andrew Scheer both claim to have come up with the name, according to the book, and it included many members of the Western caucus as well as Ontario MPs Gallant and Scott Reid and Quebec MP Maxime Bernier. Khmer Bleu members claim credit among other things for Harper’s reduction of the GST to five per cent.

His first date with Anaida lasted four hours and cost him a parking ticket

Pierre Poilievre bumped into Anaida Galindo, a Senate staffer, no less than six times in the fall of 2012. The sixth time, Poilievre made his move and asked Galindo for her Facebook coordinates. “Somewhat taken aback, Galindo lied and said she didn’t have Facebook, but told him she would get in touch with him,” writes Lawton.

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Their first date was planned at La Bottega Nicastro, an Italian grocery store and restaurant steps away from Parliament Hill, on a Friday at 8:30 a.m. But it didn’t open until 9 a.m. “What was supposed to be a quick coffee before work stretched into a four-hour-long date that included lunch. The date lasted so long that Poilievre got a parking ticket.”

Their second date was dinner at a Moxies restaurant near the Ottawa airport, since Poilievre had a plane to catch. He ended up missing his flight, apparently too busy unsuccessfully trying to get Galindo to kiss him. She agreed to meet him later that evening. That time, she did not refuse him a kiss. The two eloped in Portugal in 2017.

He frequently complains that ‘no one’ knows how to make a proper cappuccino

Despite his constant talk of the common people, Poilievre would probably not be seen enjoying a Tim Hortons coffee. Lawton’s book describes how peculiar the Conservative Leader is when it comes to his caffeine intake, and that he will not hesitate to “seek out four or five different coffee shops in a day” when visiting a new area on a trip.

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“He has little tolerance for the mass-produced coffee sold at North American chains and frequently complains that no one knows how to make a proper cappuccino, one of his and Ana’s preferred beverages,” Lawton writes. The book also reveals that Poilievre is even permitted to go behind the counter at one café in his riding to make his own cappuccino.

His decision not to run for the 2020 Conservative leadership came as a shock

Poilievre made a big splash in 2022 when he entered his party’s leadership race to replace Erin O’Toole, but what is less known is that he seriously considered entering the previous race in 2020. Andrew Scheer, who had just stepped down as leader, and others were reportedly “shocked” that Poilievre decided not to run at the time.

Poilievre had been assembling a team, was travelling the country and building up his profile. Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Ian Brodie, even said Poilievre had booked “media time for what looked like an announcement.” In the end, Poilievre announced he would not be running as leader, citing his desire to spend more time with family.

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While his decision not to run in 2020 sparked many rumours at the time, the most probable explanation according to his biography is that he and his wife Anaida were “grappling with their daughter Valentina’s emerging special needs.” The following eighteen months gave the Poilievres enough time to “have more clarity” on their daughter’s autism.

National Post
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