Pierre Poilievre

Poilievre's parents, Marlene and Donald, who had married in 1971, separated when he was in his mid-teens.

His father, Donald, later came out as a gay man.

In his early twenties, Poilievre eventually met both his biological mother and his maternal grandfather for the first time.

As a teenager, Poilievre had a job at Telus doing corporate collections by calling businesses.

He also later worked briefly as a journalist for Alberta Report, a conservative weekly magazine.

At the University of Calgary, he studied international relations.

At the age of 19, he staged a protest against a student union that tried to prevent campus Reform Party supporters from campaigning for their candidate in an Alberta Senate election.

He was one of many Reform members on campus in conflict with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, which they believed to be unprincipled.

Pierre Marcel Poilievre (/ˌpɔːliˈɛv/ PAW-lee-EV; born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition since 2022.

Pierre Marcel Poilievre was born on June 3, 1979, in Calgary, Alberta, to a 16-year-old mother, who was of Irish-Canadian descent on her father's side.

Poilievre was adopted by two schoolteachers, Marlene and Donald Poilievre (who is French Canadian) shortly after being born.

Poilievre was raised in a modest household in suburban Calgary.

He played ice hockey and went on camping trips with his younger brother, Patrick, who had also been adopted from their biological mother by Marlene and Donald.

Growing up, Poilievre worked as a paperboy for the Calgary Sun.

He attended Henry Wise Wood High School, and was on a wrestling team until he was forced to stop due to a temporary shoulder tendinitis injury, at the age of 14.

Following the injury, Poilievre attended an Alberta Tory riding-association meeting as a new hobby.

As a result, he became interested in politics and started reading political books, including Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, a book that greatly influenced his politics.

Poilievre became active in the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta by participating in meetings of both parties.

At the age of 16, Poilievre sold Reform Party memberships for Jason Kenney and also did telephone canvassing for him.

He also knocked on doors for political campaigns and served on a riding association.

Shortly after turning 17 years old, he was a delegate to the Reform Party 1996 national convention in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Poilievre graduated from Henry Wise Wood in 1997.

As a second-year student, in 1999, Poilievre submitted an essay to Magna International's "As Prime Minister, I Would...", essay contest.

His essay, titled "Building Canada Through Freedom", focused on the subject of individual freedom and among other things, argued for a two-term limit for all members of Parliament.

As a finalist, Poilievre won $10,000 and won a four-month internship at Magna, with the essay being published in the book that collected the essays titled @Stake — "As Prime Minister, I Would..."

Poilievre was president of the Young Tories at the University of Calgary, a club composed of both Progressive Conservative and Reform members focused on Alberta politics, where he clashed with Patrick Brown who was the president of the national Progressive Conservative Youth Federation at the time.

Their dispute was over Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, whom Poilievre considered to be anti-youth.

Concerned that anti-Clark members would be removed, as Brown was an executive for the Progressive Conservatives, Poilievre threatened to shift the Progressive Conservative club to the United Alternative.

Media outlets had obtained a leaked memo of Brown planning to remove anti-Clark youth leaders, but Brown denied it, leading Poilievre to back down from his threat.

In 2000, Poilievre was an organizer on a website called Organization to Draft Stockwell Day, seeking to recruit Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day to be the leader of the Canadian Alliance party.

With Day running in the leadership election, Poilievre and his young colleagues made phone calls to canvas and raise money, dubbing themselves the "Fight Club".

He has been a member of Parliament (MP) since 2004.

Poilievre was born in Calgary, Alberta.

He studied at the University of Calgary, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations.

He then worked for Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day.

Poilievre was first elected to the House of Commons following the 2004 federal election; he at first represented the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean—Carleton and then represented the re-established riding of Carleton.

After holding various parliamentary secretary posts from 2006 to 2013 under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Poilievre served as Harper's minister for democratic reform from 2013 to 2015 and as his minister of employment and social development in 2015.

From 2017 to 2022, Poilievre served as the shadow minister for finance and briefly as the shadow minister for jobs and industry.

He ran for leader of the Conservative Party in its 2022 leadership election, winning on the first ballot.

Poilievre has described himself as a libertarian-minded member of his party.