Can Mark Carney defeat Canadian populism? [Video]

Speaking to reporters after the speech from the throne on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre struck a decidedly institutionalist tone.

“We joined today in thanking His Majesty for coming to Canada and delivering the throne speech, reinforcing our ancient, great British liberties,” he said. “A parliamentary system that goes back 800 years. A system that has served Canada well and has been the foundation of what I love to call the Canadian promise.”

A Conservative praising the monarch might not seem unusual. Former foreign affairs minister John Baird, a close ally of Poilievre’s, once demanded that his department hang a portrait of the Queen in the foyer of its headquarters. 

But support for the monarchy among Conservative voters seems to have slipped in recent years. Pollara recently found Conservatives are evenly split on Canada remaining a constitutional monarchy and the Angus Reid Institutesays the share of Conservatives supporting the monarchy has fallen from …