Growing conservative movement in Canada is fighting back against 'California on steroids,' says strategist
Canada's conservative movement could gain significant momentum in this election year as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation amid mounting pressure from domestic critics and tariff threats from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, American conservative strategist Matt Shupe has been leading efforts in Calgary, training activists, consultants and volunteers on how to build winning campaigns, positioning the movement for potential gains in the post-Trudeau era.
"From my own experience in Canada, I would describe it as California on steroids," Shupe, 39, who most recently was the spokesperson for ex-MLB star Steve Garvey's Senate campaign in California, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Shupe, who began political consulting 10 years ago and founded Praetorian Services, said Trudeau's resignation is reminiscent of President Biden's exit from the 2024 presidential race.
"They took a page out of the DNC playbook with what they did with Biden," Shupe said of Canada's liberal flank. "If American politics serves as any sort of analog, that didn't work for Kamala."
Shupe noted that his conversations with Canadians suggest progressive policies have pushed even many liberals toward the center. Working with the Leadership Institute, a conservative mentorship and training organization, Shupe said leaders plan to apply lessons and data from U.S. elections to strengthen the prospects of Canadian conservatives.
"The [conservative] movement has primarily attracted young people because they don't have the prospects," he said. "They're taxed so heavily there, the cost of living is so high compared to their income, and the cost of owning a home is so hard. Whenever I go there and talk to people my age or younger, even a little older, they all have the same complaints as people I talk to in San Francisco."
Meanwhile, Canada's firebrand conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre, who could become the nation's next leader, has been compared to the likes of President-Elect Donald Trump, vowing to crack down on immigration, inflation and the budget deficit.
"I think you're seeing that with the left in Canada and in the United States, is that they just took everything too far, and they hit a threshold with people that it's just gone too far," he said.
Poilievre, whose Conservative Party has nearly three times the support of committed voters (47% compared to 18% for the Liberals) in this year’s general election, was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004. The 45-year-old Calgary native became leader of the Canadian Conservatives in 2022 and has seen his party grow in popularity as Canadians have grown tired of 53-year-old Trudeau, whose Liberals formed the government in 2015.
The incoming Trump administration will likely soon deal with a Poilievre government as the Conservatives are poised to win the next Canadian election, which could come as early as this spring. When the House of Commons resumes sitting on March 24, the opposition parties are likely to defeat the minority Liberal government in a vote of no-confidence, which would trigger a national vote that presently favors the Conservatives.
In his Peterson interview, Poilievre acknowledged that Trump, who has proposed a 25% tariff against Canadian imports, "negotiates very aggressively, and he likes to win." But as prime minister, the Conservative leader said he would seek "a great deal that will make both countries safer, richer and stronger."
TRUMP REACTS TO TRUDEAU RESIGNATION: ‘MANY PEOPLE IN CANADA LOVE BEING THE 51ST STATE’
Trudeau, after nearly a decade in power, has faced months of declining approval ratings amid growing frustration over rising inflation and the soaring cost of living.
"I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process," Trudeau told reporters Monday. "Last night, I asked the president of the Liberal Party to begin that process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it is become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election."
"As you all know, I am a fighter, and I'm not someone who backs away from a fight. Particularly when the fight is as important as this one is. But I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians and by what is in the best interests of Canadians, and Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election," Trudeau added. "And it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the liberal standard into the next election."
Fox News Digital's Christopher Guly contributed to this report.