Canada's Conservatives keep Poilievre as leader despite election loss

TORONTO (AP) — Members of Canada's Conservative opposition party voted to keep Pierre Poilievre as their leader despite his election loss last year and recent defections.

Poilievre received 87.4% support in a leadership review vote announced early Saturday at the party's convention in Calgary, Alberta.

Poilievre lost the last election to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.

More recently two Conservative lawmakers have defected to the Liberals, leaving Carney's Liberals one seat shy of a majority government and being able to pass any bill without the support of an opposition party.

In a speech to party members before the party vote, Poilievre did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump's name despite the president's ongoing threats to Canada's economy and sovereignty.

Poilievre did talk about supporting Carney's efforts to remove U.S. tariffs and diversify Canada's exports.

“In this dangerous and uncertain world, Canadians must stand united so we can stand on our own two feet. United and strong Canadians will bow before no nation anywhere on earth,” Poilievre said before the party vote.

Until last year Poilievre was seen as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd the Conservatives back into power for the first time in a decade. Then, Trump declared economic war on the U.S. neighbor to the north and even threatened to make Canada the 51st state.

Trump has continued to threaten Canada, which has infuriated Canadians and led to a sharp decline in Canadian visiting the U.S.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, noted some political commentators and even former Conservative cabinet minister and Alberta premier Jason Kenney are already criticizing Poilievre “for not addressing the US presidential elephant in the room, which is currently such a key issue for so many Canadian voters of various partisan and ideological stripes.”

Béland said Poilievre and his party are facing an uphill battle.

“Many members of the base like him but, as far as the broader Canadian electorate is concerned, he’s much less popular than Mark Carney, who recently shined on the world stage at Davos and has re-centered the Liberal Party of Canada ideologically in ways that even some moderate conservative voters like,” Béland said.

Carney used a high-profile speech last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to condemn economic coercion by great powers on smaller countries. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the gathering.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre and wife Anaida kiss as they arrive at the podium at the party's national convention in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Larry MacDougal /The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, delivers his keynote address at the party's national convention in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Larry MacDougal /The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, delivers his keynote address at the party's national convention in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Larry MacDougal /The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, and wife Anaida arrive at the podium as he prepares to deliver his keynote address at the party's national convention in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Larry MacDougal /The Canadian Press via AP)

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, delivers his keynote address at the party's national convention in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Larry MacDougal /The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP, File

A federal judge says she won’t halt the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the Twin Cities as a lawsuit over it proceeds.

Judge Katherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It argued that the Department of Homeland Security is violating constitutional protections. The lawsuit sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope. Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous.”

The ruling on the injunction focused on the argument by Minnesota officials that the federal government is violating the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which limits the federal government’s powers to infringe on the sovereignty of states. In her ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in court.

The federal government argued that the surge, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, is necessary in its effort to take criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts have been hindered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.”

State and local officials argued that the surge amounts to retaliation after the federal government's initial attempts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed. They also maintain that the surge has amounted to an unconstitutional drain on state and local resources, noting that schools and businesses have been shuttered in the wake of what local officials say are aggressive, poorly trained and armed federal officers.

“Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments as to motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the Court is reluctant to find that the likelihood-of-success factor weighs sufficiently in favor of granting a preliminary injunction," the judge said in the ruling.

The judge also said she was influenced by the government’s recent victory at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court had set aside her decision putting limits on the use of force by immigration officers against peaceful Minnesota protesters.

“If that injunction went too far, then the one at issue here — halting the entire operation — certainly would,” Menendez said.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took to social media Saturday to laud the ruling, calling it “another HUGE” legal win for the Justice Department on X.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that he was disappointed by the ruling.

“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place,” Frey said. "This operation has not brought public safety. It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop.”

Neither the Minnesota Attorney General's office nor attorneys for the city of St. Paul immediately answered questions left Saturday in phone and email messages seeking comment.

The state, and particularly the city of Minneapolis, has been on edge after federal officers fatally shot two people on the streets of Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the federal action in Minnesota and across the country.

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AP writer Ed White contributed to this report from Detroit.

Flowers and photos are left at a memorial site for Renee Good on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A photo of Renee Good is displayed in front of a home on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)