Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill in October, 2025. Poilievre has positioned himself as a very small-business prime minister for much of his time as Opposition Leader.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press

John Turley-Ewart is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, a regulatory compliance consultant and a Canadian banking historian.

Pierre Poilievre is all politics and no business, a weakness that will likely disqualify him from ever becoming prime minister. It is the leadership deficit – eschewing pragmatism, being a one-man team, failing to work with rivals in mind and allies in heart – that members of the Conservative Party of Canada must weigh later this month when they decide if he will continue as their party leader.

It did not matter much when Justin Trudeau was prime minister. Yet it does matter in the wake of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s all-business, less politics, friendly takeover of a broken Liberal brand he has revived.

Mr. Carney has quickly remade the Liberal Party of Canada into a pro-business party with pro-business senior ministers leading a “new government” executing change, much of it drawn from Conservative Party policy.

Execution distinguishes winners from losers. Tactics – the “how” – matter.........

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