Pierre Poilievre has given MP and former leadership rival Leslyn Lewis a spot in his shadow cabinet, True North has learned.
Lewis, the member of parliament for the rural Ontario riding of Haldimand—Norfolk, will serve as Poilievre’s critic for infrastructure and communities, a source connected to the Conservatives confirmed.
Poilievre is set to announce his shadow cabinet Wednesday morning. Opposition critics, sometimes referred to as shadow ministers, are responsible for holding the various federal cabinet ministers to account. Lewis can be expected to square off against Liberal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Dominic LeBlanc in Question Period in her new role.
Lewis was first elected to the House of Commons last year after rising to national prominence as a candidate in the 2020 Conservative leadership race. Lewis, a relative political unknown when she launched her campaign, placed third, earning 30% of the points and ultimately propelling Erin O’Toole to victory through the party’s ranked ballot system.
Lewis ran for the leadership again this year, placing third again, this time with 9.69% of the points.
As candidate and MP, Lewis has been an unabashed social conservative, running on a “no hidden agenda” plan to ban sex-selective abortion, criminalize coerced abortion, increase funding for pregnancy centres, and end funding of overseas abortions.
“I am pro life. I’m not ashamed to say it,” Lewis said during the leadership race.
In 2020, O’Toole courted social conservative voters with his commitment to allow free votes on matters of conscience, but he did not put Lewis in his shadow cabinet after she was elected to Parliament.
During this year’s leadership race, Lewis said she was “confident” that if one of her opponents became the Conservative leaders she would not be denied the ability to express her pro-life values as an MP.
“I think it’s very important in a free and democratic society that MPs are not forced to vote against their conscience,” she said in May. “I’m confident and I’m hoping sincerely that because they believe in our Charter, they believe in freedom, that they will also believe in the right to have free votes.”
Poilievre was clear during the leadership race that he would not, as Conservative leader or prime minister, support pro-life legislation, but he defended the right of social conservatives in his caucus to “speak their mind and offer their perspective.”
“I’m being honest. I’m not going to pass an abortion law when I’m prime minister,” Poilievre said on The Andrew Lawton Show in July. “That said, the social conservatives with whom I speak, what they really want right now is for the government to leave them alone so they can raise their own families and preach their own faith without interference or coercion.”
