OTTAWA — A top aide to former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper has lashed out at Pierre Poilievre over his leadership of the Conservative party and his recent comments attacking the RCMP’s treatment of Justin Trudeau.
In a recent interview with a YouTube channel called Northern Perspective, Poilievre called the leadership of the RCMP “despicable” and said many of former prime minister Trudeau’s scandals “should have involved jail time.”
Writing an oped in the Toronto Star, Dimitri Soudas said Poilievre’s recent statements demonstrated “recklessness” and “a leadership approach that remains rooted in grievance rather than governance.”
“In a rule-of-law democracy, no opposition leader should ever call for a prime minister or any political rival to be jailed,” he wrote. “It undermines confidence in our justice system, our federal police and ultimately the Crown.”
In the interview, Poilievre said Trudeau “probably” violated the Criminal Code during the SNC-Lavalin affair.
“These would normally have led to criminal charges, but of course the RCMP covered it all up,” he said.
Poilievre also said Trudeau broke the law when he took a “free vacation from someone with whom he had government business,” alluding to the 2016 Aga Khan scandal.
“If the RCMP had been doing its job and not covering up for him, then he would have been criminally charged,” Poilievre said. He offered no proof of a coverup.
An emailed statement from a Poilievre spokesperson late Thursday said while the RCMP plays “an important role” in protecting Canadians, “RCMP leadership passively accepted Justin Trudeau withholding key witnesses and evidence from investigation” in the SNC Lavalin affair.”
“They also declined to pursue a criminal prosecution of Justin Trudeau’s 2016 Christmas vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas, for which he was found guilty in 2017 of four violations of the federal Conflict of Interests Act,” the statement added.
Poilievre’s office declined to comment Friday on the Soudas oped, but flagged a social media post from Anna Tomala, chief of staff to Harper.
She said the oped does not reflect Harper’s views.
“Mr. Soudas does not speak on behalf of Mr. Harper,” she wrote.
Soudas wrote that, months after losing the federal election, Poilievre “seems not to have learned the lessons of his electoral defeat.”
“His latest comments show once again he has failed to make the leap from critic to leader,” he said.
Kory Teneycke, former director of communications to the Prime Minister’s Office under Stephen Harper and campaign manager for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, called Poilievre’s recent comments “absurd” and “a political misstep.”
“I don’t think they’re well advised. I think it’s quite Trumpian in tone, which I don’t think is really where the Canadian electorate’s at,” he said, citing U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent calls for criminal charges against his political enemies.
“I’m not sure what his objective was in choosing to go down that path, but I don’t think it’s one that’s broadly shared by Conservatives that I speak to anyway.”
Teneycke, who has been an outspoken critic of Poilievre’s leadership, said the Conservative leader’s comments had nothing to do with holding the current prime minister accountable.
Teneycke said that while Poilievre seemed to be “softening his tone” immediately after the election, he now seems to be falling back into old patterns.
“I think looking and sounding too much like Trump was a big liability for Poilievre with a lot of Canadian voters and I think it cost them the election,” he said.
“My view is that Poilievre was trying to tone that down quite a bit and I sort of thought he was moving in a different direction. This sort of feels like a bit of a relapse, but not in a positive way.”
In the interview with Northern Perspective, Poilievre also linked the murder of American conservative influencer Charlie Kirk with what he called an “authoritarian left” that was frustrated that it “couldn’t win the argument.”
Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was killed in September while speaking at a university in Utah.
Poilievre said Kirk, who was known for his debate-style engagements on politics, often won his arguments and when the “authoritarian left” couldn’t beat him, it “ultimately ended the argument.”
He added the “radical left” is trying to drive its opponents out of the political sphere, and that people need to “stand up against it” and protect their families.
Political violence has targeted both sides of the spectrum, both in the U.S. and in Canada.
In 2020, an armed man was arrested after he rammed his truck through the gates of Trudeau’s official residence. A number of other individuals have been charged after making death threats against Trudeau.
And in the U.S. this year, Democratic Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman was killed in her home with her husband.
Poilievre did not mention violence against the left. He said that he too has taken security precautions to keep his family safe.
“We’ve obviously had death threats targeting me. They go after my family, they target my wife,” Poilievre said.
Yaroslav Baran, who served as communications chief for Harper’s leadership campaign, said it’s not surprising that a Conservative leader would respond to Kirk’s murder.
“We certainly hear no shortage of it when it’s the other way around,” Baran said. “We’re seeing it more and more all over the map, on the right, on the left.”
Baran also spoke to Poilievre’s comments about the RCMP. He said that while there’s no widespread anti-RCMP sentiment among Conservatives, some have concerns about “potential cosiness” between the RCMP’s leadership and its “political masters.”
“It’s not the RCMP rank and file, it’s the leadership that can sometimes come into question,” he said. “There’s probably a pretty broad sentiment among Conservatives that there have been problems with the leadership of the RCMP.”
Poilievre also spoke during the roughly 30-minute interview about lessons learned from his party’s April federal election defeat, saying his party will release its platforms earlier and nominate its candidates sooner.
Soudas wrote that Canadians didn’t reject conservative ideas in the last election, but Poilievre himself.
“Months later, there’s little evidence he has reflected, adapted, or grown. If anything, he seems more committed than ever to the very approach that cost him credibility with the voters he most needed to win,” Soudas wrote.
Lori Turnbull, a professor at Dalhousie University, said Poilievre’s statements are directed at the base of supporters he needs behind him to win a leadership review at the party’s convention in Calgary in late January.
Poilievre’s leadership is up for review by the party membership after losing the April election — and his own Ottawa-area seat.
Poilievre returned to the House of Commons this fall after an MP in a safe Conservative riding stepped aside to let him run in a byelection.
Teneycke said he suspects Poilievre will easily win the leadership vote, since he doesn’t see anyone else organizing to replace him.
Turnbull said Poilievre is looking to tap into the people who still distrust Trudeau, and those who think the institutions of government are working against them.
“I’m not surprised that he’s doing this in advance of a leadership review where he’s making assumptions about who’s going to show up for that,” she said.
“The people who are going to show up to an in-person meeting in Calgary in the dead of winter? That’s not going to be a cross-section of the Conservative party.”
Turnbull said she doesn’t doubt Poilievre can win the leadership review but his “limiting” rhetoric is holding him back with the wider electorate.
“He’s using his old playbook, but it’s a different game now,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.
Catherine Morrison and Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
