Poilievre’s Election Media Time Lagged Behind Others

Courtesy: The Hill Times / Stuart Benson

Media relations were consistently at the forefront of the 2025 Canadian election. The above charts, compiled by Stuart Benson of the Hill Times, show the stark difference in questions answered by the 4 major party leaders during their campaigns daily press conferences.

Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives answered a maximum of 4 questions per day after March 28th, with one exception on April 19th, when he answered 6 questions. By comparison, Prime Minister Mark Carney averaged 9 presser questions per day, en route to winning the election.

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh were the most accessible leaders for media. Singh and Blanchet averaged 3 and 4 more questions per day respectively, than the liberal leader Carney. Blanchet’s 460 total questions answered over the campaign, were 322 more than Poilievre, which amounted to 9 more per day.

Poilievre and the Conservatives, they not only limited media access overall, but they gave certain right-wing outletspreferential treatment. These strategies did not translate to electoral success – the Conservative party saw a large polling lead evaporate in the weeks leading up to the election, and Poilievre lost his seat in the riding of Carleton, which he had held for 20 years.

The erosion of Canada’s free press – however small it may be – has been measured in a quantitative manner. A world press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders, saw Canada’s ranking slide from 14th to 21st on the global stage. The index score is based on 5 categories for journalists – political, legal, economic, social and safety conditions. The scores are accumulated from surveys to news experts within each country.