‘The wheels are off’: Senior Conservatives think the Poilievre campaign needs a reset

Conservative sources tell Global News that Poilievre’s team is isolated and refusing to bring in outside voices as poll numbers continue to slump.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign desperately needs a reset, according to some veteran Tory campaigners and strategists.

The question is whether the former frontrunner for Canada’s next prime minister and his inner circle will acknowledge and address that Donald Trump, not carbon taxes or crime, is the ballot box question, the sources tell Global News.

The world changed with U.S. President Trump’s election last year, but seven veteran Conservative campaigners warned Poilievre appears to be fighting yesterday’s fights.

“These aren’t little waves lapping at the shore. The Trump stuff is as serious as tsunamis crashing through trees and buildings and bulldozing everything in their path. They have wiped the entire issue set off the table for most of the electorate, and it’s now just this,” said Kory Teneycke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager and a former communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Teneycke worked with Poilievre and his campaign manager, Jenni Byrne, during the Harper era. He also gave a scathing review of the Conservative campaign so far in a Thursday evening speech at the Empire Club in Toronto — a rare public intervention from a partisan so early in a campaign.

“You either react to (Trump) or you’re going to get drowned,” Teneycke told Global News.

There has been a dramatic reversal of fortunes. Just three months ago, the Conservatives had been leading the Liberals by double-digit percentage points in most national polls, and seemed on track to form a majority government.

Then Trudeau left. And then Trump repeatedly threatened to annex the country.