Poilievre Projected to Lose Seat, Vows to Stay On as Conservative Leader

OTTAWA, CANADA - APRIL 29: Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to his supporters alongside his wife Anaida Poilievre after losing the Canadian Federal Election on April 29, 2025 in Ottawa, Canada. The election campaign themes have been dominated by the economy, tariffs and annexation threats from the U.S. Poilievre faced a challenge from Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

OTTAWA—Preliminary election results show that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has lost his longtime Ottawa area seat to the Liberals.

In his post-election speech, Poilievre celebrated his party’s gains in seats and national votes share, and said he would stay on as leader.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart to the millions of people who voted for the Conservative Party and put their hopes and dreams in our vision. It will be an honour to continue to fight for you and to be a champion,” Poilievre told supporters at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa after the April 28 election. The Liberals are projected to win a minority government.

As of 6:00 a.m. EST on April 29 with 99 percent of the polls in Poilievre’s Carleton riding reporting, Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy was leading with 42,374 votes, or 50.6 percent of the votes, compared to Poilievre’s 38,581 votes, or 461. percent of the votes. Poilievre has represented the riding since 2004.

The ballots in Carleton have taken longer to count because of an electoral reform group called the Longest Ballot Committee, which targeted the riding to raise awareness to its cause by flooding it with dozens of candidates.

Speaking alongside his wife Anaida on stage, Poilievre said the party had “much to celebrate tonight,” as they had gained over 20 seats and received the highest share of the vote for the party since 1988. He also said the party managed to deny the Liberals and the NDP enough seats to form a coalition majority government.

“That said, we are cognizant of the fact that we didn’t quite get over the finish line. Yet we know that change is needed but change is hard to come by. It takes time,” Poilievre said.

“It takes work, and that’s why we have to learn the lessons of tonight so that we can have an even better result the next time the Canadians decide the future.”

The Conservative leader congratulated Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Mark Carney on his election victory, and when some audience members began booing, Poilievre gestured for them to stop, saying, “We'll have plenty of opportunity to debate and disagree, but tonight we come together as Canadians.”

Poilievre said the Conservatives will continue working to hold the Liberal government to account, work with all parties to get rid of the U.S. tariffs, and secure a U.S.-Canada trade deal that “puts these tariffs behind us while protecting our sovereignty and the Canadian people.”

“Change will take time but we will fight for that change and we will deliver that change, and we will never give up on fighting the great Canadian promise that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything,” Poilievre said.

Early election results showed the Conservatives raising their share of the national votes to 41 percent compared to 34 percent in the 2021 election. The Liberals also increased their share from 33 percent in the 2021 election to around 43 percent.

Poilievre’s Conservatives led the polls with double-digit leads over the Liberals throughout 2024 but the polling trends reversed after former U.S. President Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. election and imposed tariffs on Canada. Trump also made comments about wanting Canada to be a part of the United States.

The Liberals began surging in the polls after Carney, a former central banker, became Liberal leader in March following the resignation of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.