Pierre Poilievre loses Carleton riding he’s held for 20 years

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is projected to lose his Ottawa riding of Carleton, after facing stiff competition for a seat he had held for 20 years.

Poilievre was ultimately ousted during Monday’s federal election by Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy, who coalesced opposition votes at the expense of the NDP and nearly 90 other candidates who also sought to challenge the Conservative leader.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose Liberals are projected to form government, joked during his victory speech in Ottawa Monday night that Fanjoy “will be a great MP” as early results showed Fanjoy ahead throughout the evening.

“I look forward to working with Bruce Fanjoy,” he said with a smile.

Poilievre lost despite his Conservatives gaining ridings from both the Liberals and the NDP to form the largest official opposition in Canadian history.

His loss means the Conservatives, at least temporarily, will be without a party leader in the House of Commons.

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“It will be an honour to continue to fight for you and be a champion for your cause as we go forward,” Poilievre told a cheering crowd at Conservative campaign headquarters in Ottawa before his riding was called.

The result is a shocking turn of events for Poilievre, who decisively won the Conservative leadership in 2022 and led the party to a double-digit polling lead over the Liberals.

That lead eroded after former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his intention to resign in January, and Prime Minister Mark Carney succeeded him in March.

Carleton covers suburban parts of Ottawa, which is home to many workers in the federal public service that Poilievre vowed on the campaign trail to cut.

Reports emerged last week that Poilievre was in danger of losing his seat, with unnamed Conservative Party sources telling the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star the campaign was seeking volunteers to send into Carleton to help.

Poilievre scheduled a last-minute “whistle-stop” campaign rally in the riding on Sunday, but Conservatives told Global News it was normal for party leaders to conclude their campaigns in their home ridings.

“Leaders have to go back to their ridings to vote,” a campaign source said, speaking on the condition they not be named.

Elections Canada revealed that Poilievre’s Carleton riding had the highest number of ballots cast during the record-setting four days of advanced polls over the Easter long weekend, with 43,394.

Poilievre also spent the final days of the campaign shoring up Conservative base support in western provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, as the party sought to counter Liberal gains in vote-rich Ontario and Quebec.

—With files from Global’s Alex Boutilier and Touria Izri