In addition to selecting an interim Opposition leader in the House on May 6 while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre remains without a seat in the House of Commons, Tory MPs also voted to invoke the federal Reform Act, which allows for a secret-ballot vote to review party leadership at any time.
While many Conservative MPs have expressed their support for Poilievre, the legislation could haunt him as he gets ready for the next federal election.
Previous Usage
The Reform Act, which was introduced by Conservative MP Michael Chong in 2014 and enacted by Parliament in 2015, increased the power and independence of MPs by allowing them to trigger a leadership review, expel an MP from caucus, or elect or remove a caucus chair. The leadership review and MP expulsion processes can happen if 20 percent of the caucus votes in favour of them.
At the outset of each session of Parliament, the MPs in each party vote on which provisions they want to apply to their caucus. If they vote in favour, the provisions apply until Parliament is dissolved.
In 2021, the Conservative Party used the act to expel MP Derek Sloan from caucus, who often clashed with party leadership. The party said Sloan’s campaign had received a donation from a white nationalist Paul Fromm, and then-Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole said the acceptance of the donation from a “well-known white supremacist is far worse than a gross error of judgment or failure of due diligence.” Sloan said he was not aware of the donation and returned it.
The leadership removal provisions of the act have only been used once before, when it set in motion a leadership review of O’Toole and led to his ousting on Feb. 2, 2022, with 73 of 119 Conservative MPs voting to replace him.
The Conservatives had been defeated in the 2021 election months earlier, winning no additional ridings, while the Liberals gained five extra seats. O’Toole had been criticized by some in the party for campaigning as a “true blue” Conservative during the 2020 leadership race, but then introducing a form of carbon pricing and reversing his position on the Liberals’ gun-ban policy.
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The Conservative Party had also been split over COVID-19 vaccines, as a number of MPs and senators had not received the vaccine and eventually discussed creating a “civil liberties caucus” to speak up for Canadians facing job loss and restricted movement over their vaccination status. O’Toole, who was fully vaccinated, had not required his MPs to be vaccinated and suggested rapid testing should be offered as an alternative to vaccination.
Conservative Senator Denise Batters was the first to call for O’Toole’s removal, saying in a petition that he had reversed his positions on the carbon tax, firearms, and conscience rights, and that “winning without principles is pointless.”
While O’Toole ejected Batters from the national caucus in November 2021, it was not enough to quell a leadership vote.
The Liberal Party voted not to adopt the Reform Act at the outset of Parliament in 2021, meaning they could not vote to eject Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader when the party was down in the polls in 2023 and 2024.
The NDP and Bloc Québécois also voted not to adopt the Reform Act at the beginning of the Parliamentary session in 2021.
Poilievre’s Leadership
Similar to O’Toole, Poilievre has said he intends to stay on as leader following the election loss, although his situation is different than O’Toole’s. The Conservatives fared better in the 2025 election than they did four years earlier, winning an extra 25 seats and their largest share of the popular vote since 1988.
Yet the Liberals won 170 seats, just three short of a majority, and in an upset, Poilievre lost re-election in his riding of Carleton, which he had held for over two decades. Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy received 50.8 percent of the vote in the riding, while Poilievre received 45.8 percent.
Conservative MP Damien Kurek has offered to give up his Battle River-Crowfoot seat so Poilievre can run in a byelection. Kurek’s seat, which he won with more than 80 percent of votes, is considered one of the safest in the country for the Conservatives.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who will ultimately determine when any byelections are held, has pledged not to hold up the process for political gain. “I will ensure that it happens as soon as possible,” Carney said during a May 2 press conference. “No games, nothing.”
Poilievre’s future as leader of the party is also helped by the fact that for a year and a half, the party was well ahead of the Liberal Party in the polls. It was the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his replacement by Mark Carney, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to Canada’s sovereignty that tipped the scales in the Liberals’ favour.
Until Poilievre returns to Parliament as Conservative leader, the role of the Opposition leader in the House is being held by MP Andrew Scheer, who served as leader from 2017 to 2020, when he stepped down.
Many Conservative MPs voiced support for Poilievre staying on as leader immediately following the election. However, any vote on his leadership will be conducted by secret ballot, allowing dissenting MPs the freedom to oppose him privately, and Poilievre will face this threat until the end of the Parliamentary session.
