Yess PP lost the run for PM and humiliatingly lost his riding, but overall the party grew in influence and in number of seats tremendously under his leadership.
I agree the Conservatives have grown in influence but I don’t believe it was because of Poilievre. It doesn’t matter who leads the conservative party, the Canadian pendulum was due to swing back to the Cons, he dropped the ball hard, and probably still would have won if it wasn’t for Trump slapping Canada in the face and waking a bunch of us up. Any influence gained was because it was “their turn”, not Poilievre’s leadership.
The question is, did the Conservatives come close to winning because of Poilievre, or did they lose a sure thing because of him? Based on what things looked like 6 months ago, I’d say the latter.
I dunno, I’d like to try to be hopeful. The NDP has a real shot to completely rebrand and come back swinging. Convince Charlie Angus to come out of retirement and lead the party, and spend the next however-long-this-term-lasts rebuilding support. I can’t think of a better outcome than having to Sophie’s Choice between Carney and Angus. Imagine having to choose between 2 legitimately good party leaders.