Conservative candidate says misinformation about Poilievre led to party loss in federal election

St. John's East Conservative candidate David Brazil says he heard a lot of misinformation about his party's leader while knocking on doors during his federal election campaign, and that might have led to the loss on election night.

The federal Conservatives lost by 26 seats to a Liberal Party that will form government for a fourth consecutive term. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also lost his own riding, but is expected to run in a byelection for a vacated seat in Alberta after Conservative MP Damien Kurek agreed to step down.

Brazil says voters in his district were supportive of him as a possible MP, but didn't understand Poilievre or the party's goals. 

"A number of times I would ask people to fact check what they thought was the real Pierre Poilievre, and they'd come back and apologize and realize [he] is a committed individual," Brazil said.

Some of that "misinformation" Brazil says he heard at doors was that Poilievre was against women's rights, against 2SLGBTQ+, against affordable daycare and against pharmacare.

But, Brazil says, those are misconceptions. 

During his campaign, Poilievre took backlash from comments he made about women's biological clocks. He also said he's only aware of two genders and spoke against the $10-a-day daycare program. But, he also said he would maintain existing dental care, pharmacare and child-care programs.

WATCH | An N.L. Conservative candidate is speaking out about federal campaign missteps:

David Brazil says ‘somebody dropped the ball’ resulting in Poilievre’s Conservatives’ election loss

1 day ago

Duration 5:20

David Brazil had hoped to represent the riding of St. John’s East for the Conservatives. But the seat stayed Liberal. Brazil spoke to the CBC’s David Cochrane about what he thought went wrong for the Conservatives during the campaign.

Communication was an issue for the Conservative campaign, Brazil said. He says the rationale for Poilievre's positions were never fully explained to voters, and going forward it's something the party should review. 

"Unfortunately, in a five-week election, it takes a lot of time to clarify every issue and every policy," he said.

Brazil says his conversations with Poilievre were always supportive of policies relevant to Newfoundland and Labrador, and while the Conservative leader may have disagreed with some legislation, Brazil says he would explain good alternatives. 

"Maybe they should have clarified that better," he said about the party's campaign decision-makers. "They should have probably had more open discussions with the stakeholders."

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party limited their interactions with the media during its campaign. 

During Poilievre's visit in Petty Harbour, Conservative staffers controlled the event tightly, and jostled with reporters. They also limited questions from reporters during all media events. 

However, Brazil took part in debates and interviews during his own campaign. 

"I don't think … whoever made the decisions used everything at their disposal to get that information out to the average person," he said. "Particularly females who had either misinformation or misconceptions of what we stood for."

Despite this, Brazil says he thinks Poilievre brought the party where it needed to go, and that this election taught the party that it needs to have a better decision making process. 

"One of the biggest issues … is we didn't pivot quick enough when we found out that the electorate wanted to move away from the standard stuff," said Brazil. 

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