Conservative MP Andrew Scheer will serve as the interim Opposition leader in the House of Commons while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre waits for a byelection in Alberta to secure a seat in Parliament.
“I’ll be taking over the parliamentary leadership duties of the caucus until Mr. Poilievre rejoins us in the House,” Scheer, a former leader of the party, told reporters following a caucus meeting on May 6.
Scheer previously served as Canada’s youngest House speaker before becoming leader of Conservatives from 2017 to 2020.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre arrives on Parliament Hill for a meeting of the Conservative caucus following the federal election, in Ottawa, on May 6, 2025. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
The Conservative caucus also voted to adopt the Reform Act, which allows it to ask for a secret-ballot vote to review its party leadership.
So far, Poilievre’s role as leader hasn’t been openly challenged. Back in 2022, the Reform Act was used to oust Erin O’Toole as leader after the party was defeated in the 2021 election.
Scheer told reporters he would not discuss the adoption of the Reform Act.
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Poilievre lost re-election in his riding of Carleton during the April 28 election, a riding he had held for over two decades, and cannot serve as Opposition leader without a seat in Parliament. Poilievre plans to run in the Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot, after Conservative MP-elect Damien Kurek who represents the riding offered to step aside to allow Poilievre to run.
In a video posted to social media on May 5, Poilievre said the party “didn’t get over the finish line, which means that I need to learn and grow, and our team needs to expand.” The Liberal Party won re-election with 169 seats, three short of a majority, while the Conservatives increased their seat count to 143. Seat counts could change in the coming days due to recounts in ridings with close races.
During an interview outside the House of Commons on May 6, Poilievre also said the electoral map was “looking more and more like a two-party map,” since Conservatives and Liberals grew their seat count while the NDP and the Bloc Québécois saw theirs decrease.
When Scheer was asked about the role the Conservatives would play in Parliament following the election, he said the party wants a “good deal for Canada” in the country’s trade war with the United States. “At the end of the day, we just need these tariff threats to stop. We need free trade with the United States back,” he said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House earlier in the day, where the two discussed the countries’ trade and security relationship. Carney said following the meeting that it had been a “constructive” conversation that will continue in the weeks ahead, but did not say when he believed the tariffs would come off.
Canada is currently facing three different sets of U.S. tariffs, with some items under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement being exempt. Trump has also repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st state” and said he would like to see the country merge with the United States.
Scheer said Trump needed to lift the tariffs and stop with “threats of annexation,” and suggested that his party would support the Liberal government on matters related to the trade war.
“We’re going to support, do our very best as an Official Opposition to hold the government to account, but to do what we can to help facilitate that, and we’ll see what the government brings forward,” Scheer said.
